Glossary
Career and Technical Education Teacher Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential career and technical education teacher terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key career and technical education teacher vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in career and technical education teacher training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Advisory committee
- Employers advising a CTE program.
- Capstone
- A culminating project.
- Career pathway
- A sequence of courses leading to a career.
- Competency
- A demonstrated skill.
- CTE
- Career and technical education.
- Dual credit
- Earning college credit in high school.
- HOSA
- A student organization for health careers.
- Industry-recognized credential
- A certification valued by employers.
- Lab
- A hands-on classroom.
- Perkins V
- Federal CTE funding law.
- Pre-apprenticeship
- Programs that prepare students for apprenticeships.
- Program of study
- An organized CTE course plan.
- Shop safety
- Rules for safe tool and equipment use.
- SkillsUSA
- A student organization for trades and technical careers.
- Work-based learning
- Internships and job experiences.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Career and Technical Education Teacher practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Career and Technical Education Teacher training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.