Kate Kreamer: Building CTE Systems That Work for Every Student

Kate Kreamer, Executive Director of Advance CTE, the longest-standing national nonprofit representing state leaders responsible for secondary, postsecondary, and adult career and technical education, discusses what it actually takes to build CTE systems that are rigorous, relevant, and ready to scale. Kate makes the case for two-way academic integration, arguing that while CTE programs have long been expected to reinforce core academics, there has never been a reciprocal expectation that core academic teachers draw on labor market data and career competencies to make their instruction more relevant. The conversation explores the perennial challenge of employer engagement, why the field keeps having the same conversation about advisory committees without cracking the code on co-design and co-investment, and what models like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Talent Pipeline Management program are doing differently. Kate also examines the growing role of intermediaries in building and sustaining strong career pathways, why sustainability remains the field's biggest unanswered funding question, and why the single most important thing educators, employers, and policymakers can do is go see a modern CTE program in action before drawing any conclusions about what it is or isn't.

Transcript

Julian Alssid: Welcome to the Work Forces podcast. I'm Julian Alssid.

Kaitlin LeMoine: And I'm Kaitlin LeMoine, and we speak with innovators who are shaping the future of work and learning.

Julian Alssid: Together, we unpack the complex elements of workforce and career preparation and offer practical solutions that can be scaled and sustained.

Kaitlin LeMoine: This podcast is an outgrowth of our Work Forces consulting practice. Through weekly discussions, we seek to share the trends and themes we see in our work and amplify impactful efforts happening in higher education, industry, and workforce development all across the country. We are grateful to Lumina Foundation for its past support during the initial development and launch of this podcast, and invite future sponsors of this effort. Please check out our Work Forces podcast website to learn more. And so with that, let's dive in.

Julian Alssid: As we continue season seven, career and technical education keeps coming up as a thread across our work and our conversations on this podcast. There's real momentum in the field right now, and with that momentum comes some genuinely hard questions about quality, consiste