Georgia Career, Technical and Agricultural Education— or

CTAE—has historically provided students with the high quality

education necessary to prepare for career

opportunities in the Georgia economy.

While CTAE has been successful, emerging technologies and

evolving employer expectations to have a highly qualified,

motivated, and reliable workforce demand that Georgia

strategically re-tool CTAE.

The new vision for CTAE retains its challenging curriculum,

yet expands the scope to ensure that every Georgia student

graduates from high school with the academic skills, hands-on

experience in real work environments, and intensive career

guidance required to succeed in college and/or employment.

high-skill workforce. Unfortunately, employers can’t find

enough skilled workers in state, so they often recruit from

other states, regions, and even countries to fill high-paying

positions located right here in Georgia. Equipping Georgia’s

workforce and industries to compete in the global marketplace

requires improving how the state prepares students for life

beyond high school.

That is why CTAE is in the process of realigning its

Program Concentrations and curriculum areas to better

support the Governor’s Strategic Industries and Innovation

Centers Initiative (see box at right). By creating a direct

connection between secondary school education and the

industries identified as key to Georgia’s future economic wellbeing,

CTAE can help ensure that all students graduate from

high school with the academic and career skills required to

succeed in the 21st-century workplace.

This reengineering of CTAE’s concentrations, curriculum,

and Individual Career Pathways is a thoughtful evolution that

will unfold logically over three years. The goal is to create the

following eight areas of concentration encompassing the 16

federal career clusters:

Within each Program Concentration are Career Pathways

that students can choose to follow. Part of the realignment

process will include the development of Individual Career

Plans (ICPs) showing the sequence of courses in each pathway,

as well as academic requirements and postsecondary options.