If you are taking a career and technical education course in a Kansas high school, it is part of a larger structure worth understanding.
How Kansas organizes it. Six major industries, 13 career clusters, and 31 pathways, plus narrower strands inside each pathway. An industry is the big picture like healthcare or manufacturing. A cluster groups similar careers within it. A pathway is the program you actually follow in school. Strands are focused skill areas inside a pathway.
Why it matters. CTE connects middle school, high school, and college programs so you can earn credit early and explore careers before committing to a program. The framework is aligned with Kansas workforce needs, so pathways point at jobs that actually exist here.
Excel in CTE is the part students miss. Under this initiative, Kansas high school students qualify for state-funded college tuition in approved technical courses offered by Kansas technical and community colleges. That means college credit, paid for by the state, while you are still in high school. Ask your counselor which approved courses your school offers.
Where to look. KSDE career pathways at ksde.gov/student-success/cte/career-pathways, and the Career Cluster Guidance Handbook, which includes the pathways chart and course design sheets.
Pair it with wage data. KLIC publishes high-demand occupation data organized by these same clusters, so you can see which pathways lead to jobs that pay.
Sources: Kansas State Department of Education, ksde.gov/student-success/cte, ksde.gov/student-success/cte/career-pathways, and ksde.gov/student-success/cte/career-clusters; KSDE CTE Resource Guide 2026-2027 and Kansas Career Cluster Guidance Handbook, ksde.gov; Kansas Labor Information Center, klic.dol.ks.gov.