News from AFT CTE | March 2026

Welcome to our AFT Career and Technical Education Newsletter! This space is dedicated to empowering AFT CTE educators with the latest events, innovative toolkits, and invaluable resources to enhance the teaching journey. Whether you're looking for professional development opportunities, new teaching strategies or the latest industry trends, you'll find them here. We promise to keep these newsletters short but informative.

What’s happening with CTE:

AFT President Randi Weingarten visited Breithaupt CTE Center in Detroit. The school provides fantastic career pathways programs from automotive technology to culinary arts for students to get hands-on experience in classrooms and opportunities to get paid while learning the job.

Check out a new video from New Lexington, Ohio, showcasing how #CTEWorks. The video highlights how career and technical education turns learning into something students can feel, do, and pursue. CTE isn’t a future idea—it's happening now. Real students gain real skills, make connections, and walk away equipped with the skills and confidence to build meaningful careers.

The AFT would like to highlight the achievements of this CTE educator:

• Amanda Ramsden teaches Certified Nurse’s Assistant classes at Wilco Area Career Center in Romeoville, Ill. She served as a HOSA-Future Health Professionals student adviser leading students at the State Conference Awards. HOSA’s mission is to empower HOSA-Future Health Professionals to become leaders in the global health community, through education, collaboration and experience.

From Career Awareness to Career Readiness: Strengthening CTE in K-12
How can schools move beyond career awareness to true career readiness? This new Share My Lesson blog explores ideas that support strong, equity-driven career and technical education programs that connect classroom learning to real workforce opportunities. Discover key components of successful pathways, practical strategies and real-world examples that help students see what’s possible. Plus, register for five free, for-credit CTE-themed sessions at Share My Lesson’s 2026 Virtual Conference (March 23-26) to gain classroom-ready tools you can use right away. Read more at https://sharemylesson.com/blog/cte-career-readiness.

Are you interested in building powerful partnerships with local industries and associations? The National Association of Home Builders can help! Whether you want to start a student chapter, explore  lesson plans or browse CTE promotional material, the association would love to assist you. Email Becca Wray at rwray@nahb.org for more information.

The Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence application has opened for $2 million to be distributed to 25 outstanding skilled trades teachers in U.S. public high schools. Applications close May 1.

There is still time to register for the 2026 Rural Summit in Buffalo, N.Y., April 12-15. Educators, school leaders, higher education partners, workforce professionals and philanthropic allies will meet to exchange proven strategies, spark collaborations, and drive meaningful change across a cradle-to-career journey.

The Bipartisan Policy Center has released A Nation at Risk to a Nation at Work: The Case for a National Talent Strategy. Recommendations in the report are organized around three key imperatives: building a national talent strategy that supports state and local leadership, keeping learns and workers at the center of education systems and pathways, and upgrading benefits and supports for employees and employers.

Save the dates for SkillsUSA’s National Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta from June 1-5. This conference celebrates the accomplishments of individuals preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations. Students will showcase their talents and skills on the national level. The AFT would like to feature the stories from SkillsUSA teachers and students who will participate in this year’s conference. Please share your stories with Kate Salasky at ksalasky@aft.org. 

Each month, we’re committed to recognizing the invaluable contributions of CTE educators. We would love to uplift an AFT CTE educator in this newsletter. Nominate someone here.

Thank you for reading the AFT Career and Technical Education Newsletter. If you enjoyed this edition and would like to stay updated with our latest news and resources, please click here to subscribe. We appreciate your support and look forward to connecting with you again next month.