Exploring the Paths to Your Future

Every Career and Technical Education class falls into one of 16 “career clusters.” A career cluster is a group of jobs and industries that are related by skills or products. Within each cluster, there are cluster “pathways” that correspond to a collection of courses and training opportunities to prepare you for a given career.

The 16 clusters were established at the national level by the States' Career Clusters Initiative and are recognizable across the United States in middle schools, high schools, community and technical colleges, and the workforce.

Each cluster has a page on this Web site and each contains information on careers, affiliated student leadership organizations, education and training options for high school graduates after high school, and other related student resources. You can also find more information on CTE classes on our Preparing for Your Future page.

Frameworks

There are many CTE courses offered under each career cluster. For many courses, OSPI offers a state model framework. More than a syllabus or other course outline, a framework is a guide and a tool that aligns National and Industry Standards to State Core Content Standards, Performance Assessments, Leadership, Employability, Relevance to Work and Thinking Skills all in one document. Frameworks provide an overview of the outcomes that students meet in the CTE course. Frameworks help ensure student outcomes are relevant to the current needs of their program of study's industry and national standards. Frameworks support the continuous improvement of CTE programs because they are reviewed annually by program advisory committees and by program supervisors at OSPI.

Below are all current state model frameworks for each career cluster. These are also accessible, along with the designated CIP Codes for each career cluster on the individual cluster pages, accessible via the navigation above or to the right.