Monday, April 23, 2012

Blueprint releases to Transform Career and Technical Education in US

Today U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will visit the Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, Iowa, to release the Obama Administration’s blueprint for transforming Career and Technical Education (CTE), by reauthorizing the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006. Secretary Duncan will hold a town hall to discuss how the Administration’s plan will ensure the education system provides high-quality job-training opportunities that reduce skill shortages, spur business growth, encourage new investment and hires, and spark innovation and economic growth.

Through a $1 billion investment in the Obama Administration’s FY 2013 budget, the Administration’s blueprint for reauthorizing the Perkins Act will transform the Perkins program in four key areas:

Alignment: Ensuring that the skills taught in CTE programs reflect the actual needs of the labor market so that CTE students acquire the 21st century skills necessary for in-demand occupations within high-growth industry sectors.

Collaboration: Incentivizing secondary schools, institutions of higher education, employers, and industry partners to work together to ensure that all CTE programs offer students high-quality learning opportunities. 

Accountability: Requiring CTE programs to show, through common definitions and related performance measures, that they are improving academic outcomes and enabling students to build technical and job skills.

Innovation: Promoting systemic reform of state-level policies to support effective CTE implementation and innovation at the local level.

The Obama Administration already has made key investments to align classroom teaching and learning with real-world business needs. The Departments of Education and Labor are in the process of distributing $2 billion in Trade Adjustment Assistance grants to strengthen community college programs and workforce partnerships.

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