What is Career-Technical Education? (CTTE)
Career-Technical Education is the contemporary term that describes educational programs designed to prepare Ohio high school students for careers in trade areas. This term replaced the term "vocational education" some years ago. Career-Technical Education programs prepare students for specific occupations or a career cluster in a wide variety of career areas. Many programs prepare students for initial entry into a specific occupation. In addition, some programs prepare students for further post-secondary study. These programs are referred to as TechPrep. Career-Technical Education is different than Technology Education which refers to the former Industrial Arts. It is also different than Instructional Technology or Technical Education.
What is Career-Technical Teacher Education?
CTTE at Kent State University is one of a small number of teacher education programs in Ohio designed to prepare teachers as educators primarily in Ohio Schools in Career-Technical Programs. The KSU program is the only program in North East Ohio serving the Career-Technical Education community. The program is comprehensive offering teacher licensure programs, baccalaureate and graduate degrees, a national occupational testing site and honor societies in Career-Technical Education.
How do I go about becoming a Career-Technical teacher?
There are two primary paths to becoming a licensed teacher in a Career-Technical trade area. Each path offers specific licenses. The traditional path (Route A) includes coursework and student teaching leading to a bachelor degree in education, with licensure. The teaching licenses available in this path are in Integrated Business, Family/Consumer Sciences and Marketing. The second path is Industry Option (Route B) with industry and/or teaching experience as the employment criteria. The Route B option requires a teacher to be hired by a school district into a full-time teaching position in their trade area.
What are the costs associated with earning a Career-Technical license?
The costs associated with obtaining a CTE license are related to the specific path involved. The bachelor degree path requires 126 semester hours of credit. As a full-time student, the costs for tuition, books, room and board for four years are approximately $60,000.00. The experience based path (Route B) requires either 11 or 24 semester credit hours based on the background of the teacher. Approximate costs range from $3,500.00 to $8,000.00.
Does an academic still need to get a Career-Technical license?
All Career-Technical teachers must be licensed by the State of Ohio. Teachers with academic licenses must add a career-tech license specific to the career-tech subject they teach.
How do I get to talk with an advisor?
Undergraduate advising is under the direction of Professor Donna Richmond (drichmon@kent.edu).
Graduate advising is directed by Dr. Patrick J. O'Connor (poconnor@kent.edu).
What is NOCTI?
NOCTI is the National Occupational Competency Testing Institute. KSU is a certified test site for NOCTI. This institute provides testing to verify occupational competency in a wide assortment of occupations. Teachers who are licensed through Route B can take NOCTI exams in two parts; a written test (held in a classroomsetting on main Kent campus) and a performance component (in a lab setting). This enables the teacher to earn from 12 - 24 college credit-by-exam hours which can be applied to the bachelor degree and/or the KSU Associate's Degree in Education program.
How do I register for a NOCTI exam?
The written exam is given twice a year on a Saturday morning on main Kent campus - usually the second Saturday in February and October (Fall and Spring semesters only). You will find these dates on the "Important Dates" link from this page. The performance exam is given on an as-requested basis during the academic year and must be taken after taking and passing the written part of the test.
