News from AFT CTE | April 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:

National Apprenticeship Week is a nationwide celebration of apprenticeships to demonstrate the value of registered apprenticeships in meeting critical industry workforce needs. NAW is an opportunity to expand registered apprenticeships and exceed 1 million active apprentices, as well as to get students into high-quality jobs. Learn more about this opportunity with Apprenticeship USA toolkit.

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

• Becky Bates teaches business courses and is the Career and Technical Education Department Chair in Columbia Falls, Mont. She was recently nominated with eight local teachers as part of the inaugural class of 12 instructors from the state who were inducted into the Montana Digital Academy Teacher Hall of Fame! #PublicSchoolProud

Future-Ready Facilities Grant

The Future-Ready Facilities Grant is a $500,000 philanthropic initiative, sponsored by Attune, supporting 25 school districts implementing indoor air quality, energy and water monitoring measures. The goal is to help districts take a meaningful first step—building data, insights and early success stories that can unlock additional funding and long-term improvements. Over time, this work also helps bridge the gap between school readiness and emerging mandates and legislation. Applications are open through May 15. Apply here.  

NCCER High School Builder Program

Every high school should have a CTE program to provide students with hands-on experience, valuable skills that lead to meaningful careers, and industry-recognized credentials. However, many schools face financial barriers that prevent them from offering these essential programs. Through donor support, the High School Builder Program allows schools to start or expand their CTE programs and ensure that more students have the opportunity to gain a head start on building a successful and fulfilling career in construction. Learn more about the application process here.

PLTW offers preK-12 curriculum focused on preparing students to discover and explore interests in computer science, engineering and biomedical science. Students are able to imagine and design solutions to real-world challenges as well as become independent, confident problem-solvers.  PLTW offers ongoing professional development to build on STEM (science, technology, math and engineering) expertise and teaching strategies to implement new skills in the classroom. Check out the curriculum here.  

Onshape is a professional-grade cloud-native CAD platform that students and educators can access for free on any device anywhere or anytime. Create your account here!  

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 National Leadership and Skills 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.