Resource Spotlight – Association for Career & Technical Education (ACTE)

The TCOE resources for educators (recently renamed the Online Learning Resource Center, or OLRC) contains many resources available to educators to improve and enhance their education.  The TCOE resources are collected and curated from a variety of sources.  One of those sources is the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE).  ACTE is a member association focused on education within career and technical education programs.  ACTE’s mission is “To provide educational leadership in developing a competitive workforce. ACTE strives to empower educators to deliver high quality CTE programs that ensure all students are positioned for career success.”  ACTE and the TCOE have a similar focus goal.  As such, a school or program may want to consider looking into ACTE resources or membership.  They have a wide variety of resources from advocacy, best practices, work-based learning, online learning, and professional development, to conferences, webinars, and seminars on a myriad of topics related to career and technical education along with topics related to general pedagogy.

In the area of advocacy, ACTE informs its members on various policies, rules, regulations and laws being considered, or recently enacted, that affect career and technical education.  Most importantly, they provide tools and resources designed to empower you, the educator, to advocate for yourself at the various levels of government.  They also provide resources related to the new Perkins V legislation explaining and summarizing this legislation.

Sharing best practices is a great way to provide professional development and improve education.  ACTE has best practice resources related to:

A best practices conference is one of several regularly scheduled conferences conducted by ACTE.  The best practices summit is focused on assisting school administrators bring improvement and enhancement to their schools.  Other conferences include their Vision conference where they cover high-quality CTE in remote, blended and in-person learning environments, the latest CTE innovations, and a wealth of immersive networking experiences to help keep you engaged and connected.  There are also innovation summits, work-based learning conferences, regional conferences, national policy seminars, podcasts, webinars, and many, many more.  They even have a store where you can buy books related to career and technical education that could be given as a gift to a colleague, for your own study, or for a group study on a particular topic.

There are more resources available on the ACTE website than can be easily described in a typical article.  I suggest you head on over to the ACTE site and take a look for yourself.  Some of their resources are available for all, others are for members only.  If you attend one conference, you will likely save enough in the cost of registration to justify the cost of the membership.  It provides a good return on your investment.  Check them out!