CTE stands for “Career and Technical Education” and it is a 100-year old workforce development paradigm that aims to connect high school students to industries that have demand for local, homegrown talent.
In NJ, CTE programming is supported by multiple state agencies, including the NJ Department of Education and the NJ Department of Labor. A key partner to the government is Advance CTE, a national nonprofit that supports state governments across the country. Advance CTE’s “Career Cluster”® framework includes a pathway for K though 12 students to learn accounting at the high school level on a range of careers, which includes finance and accounting.
The federal government supports CTE through grant funding and a national framework that spans all 50 states.
In 2018 the federal government updated and strengthened an important linkage between high school and career pathways with the “Perkins V” legislation, formally known as “The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act.
As of 2023, Perkins V was a $1.4 billion annual federal investment in career and technical education (CTE). “Perkins V” represents the fifth iteration of federal legislation stretching back to 1984 that aims to support career readiness for K through 12 populations, with particular emphasis on support for marginalized communities.
There are many resources online to learn more about Perkins, including the U.S. Department of Education’s Perkins Collaborative Research Network.
State governments are charged with supporting Perkins V-related CTE programming on a local level.
In New Jersey, the Departments of Education and Labor both have vested interests in CTE because of the explicit need to better develop local, homegrown talent. Local boards of education are ultimately responsible for implementation of CTE in the schools. The state agencies help channel Perkins V grant funding and it also collects data to measure the results.
CTE puts an emphasis on students gaining real-world access to career spaces, thus work-based learning is emphasized. CTE is an explicit, government-created mandate to map students from school into industry, including accounting. Accounting stakeholders can help shape what that road map looks like by engaging the CTE paradigm.
The accounting industry is lagging behind other industries in New Jersey with respect to engaging CTE at the high school levels, but this could change if the CPA community endeavors to better understand this paradigm and how to engage it in a strategic way.
This post is part of the Accounting Pipeline & CTE section of Civic Parent. The broader research examines how New Jersey’s Career and Technical Education system – including the Finance Career Cluster – connects to the accounting profession’s workforce development challenge.
Brigid D’Souza is a CPA, founder of Harborstead Advisory, and the author of Civic Parent. She serves as Vice President of the Hudson County Chapter of the NJ Society of CPAs and on the NJCPA Strategic Planning and Scholarships Committees. She was recognized as a 2026 Forbes Best-in-State CPA, New Jersey.
