Adopting Industry Skill Standards Can Strengthen CTE

Overview & Synopsis

Representatives of business, industry, and education have long perceived a gap between students' existing skills and those needed in the workplace. To address this problem, a strong movement toward adopting voluntary skill standards is now seen within career and technical education (CTE). In this article, the author discusses how addressing skill standards can help in ensuring that the country will have enough workers with the necessary competence to fill the demands of the current and future skilled workforce. The author also discusses how implementation of national industry-based skill standards can help CTE programs assess worker skills and shape relevant education reform efforts, including teacher preparation.