Middle School Career and Technical Education

DPS Career and Technical Education gives students early exposure to thousands of career options as they learn more about their own passions and interests.

We take those interests and nurture them. With access to hundreds of exploration opportunities, students visit work sites in a field they want to know more about and talk to professionals. Students take the skills learned in the classroom and apply them on the job through shadowing, internships and apprenticeship opportunities. Our goal is to help students identify their passions, explore what they love doing and make a career out of it through intentional planning. Career and Technical Education is a transformative approach to preparing students to be successful in college and their future career, and it’s another way DPS is redesigning the high school experience.

This is learning made real, and your bright future starts here.

The Mission of Middle School Career and Technical Education

The purpose of early CTE curriculum is to introduce students to their individual interests. This results in the student gaining early entry-level knowledge about industry skills, career fields, and potential certification, which in turn supports High School program recruitment and retention. These actions inevitably increase graduation rates and postsecondary enrollment rates.

The benefits of early CTE curriculum are massive. Students get exposure to career fields and the World of Work, which uses the RIASEC model to determine employment personalities. Early CTE work also ensures that your ICAP is aligned with your personal interests and goals, which increase your readiness for technical or higher education, or jumping straight into the workforce.