Career and technical education has traditionally been seen as a high school initiative, but perspectives on CTE have been widening. Federal CTE funding under the 2018 reauthorization of the Perkins Act represents a major shift: Perkins funds can now support CTE programs as early as fifth grade.
With $1.5 billion in Perkins funds distributed to states annually, this expansion provides districts with a compelling opportunity to integrate STEM-career focused programs, including robotics and computer science, into middle and even elementary grades.
The opportunity to start CTE in fifth grade is a welcome development, but STEM education outcomes will be even better if CTE is a K12 proposition. Why should schools introduce CTE at such an early stage? Research shows that children begin forming career aspirations as young as preschool, and early exposure to STEM education significantly impacts their confidence, interest and long-term participation in these fields.
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By strategically aligning STEM with CTE, districts can not only support the development of future-ready students but also leverage federal funding to strengthen hands-on, engaging learning experiences that build skills they’ll use for the rest of their lives.
Building essential workplace skills in the earliest years
One of the greatest misconceptions about CTE is that it is solely about job training. It’s really about skill-building: developing the critical thinking, teamwork skills and adaptability needed in any career. Introducing CTE concepts in elementary school allows students to develop these essential skills early in an organic, engaging way.
The CTE Employability Skills Framework, developed by the U.S. Department of Education to help guide CTE program implementation, identifies three key skill areas essential for career readiness. Here’s how robotics helps young learners develop these skills.
- Applied knowledge: Early robotics and STEM programs empower students to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills by engaging in hands-on projects that require iteration, debugging, and creative solutions.
- Effective relationships: Through collaborative robotics challenges, students strengthen communication and teamwork. They learn how to listen, share ideas and build on each other’s contributions.
- Workplace skills: Young learners build technology use skills through programming and engineering design challenges, while also practicing initiative, self-direction and resilience—essential traits for any future career.
Early childhood educators are already adept at teaching their young students to develop these cognitive, social-emotional and executive functioning skills. By framing these child development skills as competencies that support successful CTE, districts can align their K5 STEM programs with workforce development goals.
Early STEM is not separate from CTE—it is CTE.
Using robotics to power CTE for elementary schools
For elementary career and technical education initiatives to be successful, they should be structured around key learning principles that align closely with best practices in early childhood STEM education. Inspired by Seymour Papert’s theory of constructionism, effective early STEM education allows children to create personally meaningful, hands-on projects in a collaborative social environment.
Educational robotics programs such as the KIBO Robot Kit from KinderLab Robotics allow elementary students to engage in computer science, engineering and other STEM topics using what Papert called “objects to think with.” Robots move and act within the physical environment of the classroom, providing concrete reinforcement to students’ learning.
More importantly, students can create projects that are personally meaningful and expressive. Robotics lessons can also integrate hands-on building with arts and crafts materials, inspiring students to engage deeply with coding concepts in a way that feels natural and enjoyable.
Robotics is more than just an exciting way to introduce coding and engineering—it is a direct link between early education and the workforce skills that CTE aims to develop. Young students are not just assembling machines; they are designing solutions to challenges, debugging programs and iterating on their ideas.
At the same time, they are developing their curiosity, creativity, persistence and collaboration skills. These experiences mirror the problem-solving processes found in engineering, computer science and advanced manufacturing—fields directly connected to CTE pathways.
STEM is more than just a collection of science, technology, engineering and math skills. STEM—in school and in the workforce—is also a set of practices for learning. These social skills and executive functioning capabilities are exactly where STEM and CTE overlap.
Building a STEM/CTE pipeline
Perhaps the most significant outcome of an early CTE program is increased participation in middle and high school CTE. CTE administrators face the daily challenge that by high school, 50% or more of the student body has already self-sorted out of any interest in STEM jobs.
District leaders can consider a STEM/CTE program as a pipeline that starts in elementary school and serves students through high school.
As time goes by, the lines between STEM and CTE will continue to blur. The same skills that prepare students for future careers—problem-solving, collaboration,and technology fluency—are the skills that hands-on STEM education fosters. By making STEM a priority in early CTE funding strategies, schools can provide all students access to high-quality, engaging and future-focused learning experiences.
To create effective pathways of STEM career interest for all students, career and technical education needs to start early. The goal is not to turn every child into a STEM professional but rather to ensure that every child makes an informed choice.
