Online Career and Technical Education (CTE) Certificate
This 12-credit program allows students to earn a graduate certificate in Career and Technical Education (CTE). This certificate includes the four courses required by the State of Idaho for CTE Limited Occupational Specialists and aligns with the Idaho Foundation Standards for Career and Technical Education Teachers.
HRD Certificate Course Requirements (12 credits)
| Code | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CTE 5501 | Foundations of Career and Technical Education | 3 |
| CTE 5502 | Analysis and Course Construction in Career and Technical Education | 3 |
| CTE 5503 | Methods of Teaching Career and Technical Education | 3 |
| CTE 5504 | Evaluation in Career and Technical Education | 3 |
| Total Credits | 12 | |
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to:
- Describe the origin, history, and current state of Career and Technical Education.
- Demonstrate competence in the instruction design process including analyzing occupational needs and trends, connecting them to post-secondary standards and competencies, applying that information to the creation of course content and materials, and creating appropriate assessment and evaluation strategies.
- Demonstrate competence in communication skills and a variety of instructional delivery methodologies, techniques, and assessments.
Background:
Career and Technical Education (CTE) educators come to their teaching careers in several ways. The two most common paths are first, in a degree-based career and primarily teach in K-12 (business education, family consumer science, etc). Second, CTE educators may be Industry Professionals who will generally teach post-secondary such as ISU College of Technology, CEI, CSI, and CWI (although they may also teach secondary school). Industry Professionals bring discipline expertise to the classroom, but not necessarily a teaching background. For example, if you wanted to hire an instructor for welding, auto mechanics, or cosmetology; you would hire an experienced welder, auto mechanic, or cosmetologist. Since these Industry Professional educators may not have a background in teaching, the State of Idaho (and most other states), requires that they get pedagogy/teaching training within their first 3 years of employment to earn what the State of Idaho calls a Standard Occupational Specialist SOS) credential. There are two paths to complete the SOS, and one of them is to take four pedagogy/teaching classes from the Organizational Learning & Performance department at ISU. CTE students can take these four classes at the undergraduate or graduate level depending on their academic background.
CTE educators have been taking these SOS-approved courses from the Organizational Learning & Performance Department at ISU for well over 15 years. A few of the CTE educator students go on to pursue a master's degree from the Organizational Learning & Performance department, but the majority of these students take the four courses to satisfy the State requirements for a SOS, and leave ISU with no credential. This certificate allows them to meet the SOS requirements and earn an ISU. credential/certificate.