Barriers to Career and Technical Education in New Hampshire

Roughly twenty percent of high school students in New Hampshire attend Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs spread across 32 CTE centers in the state and in Vermont. CTE prepares youth and adults for a wide range of careers. At the secondary level, CTE provides students with the opportunity for career training that supplements or replaces high school courses, creating a clearer pathway to a career.1 That said, barriers exist that impede student participation in CTE. They include funding constraints, long transportation times for students from "sending schools," a lack of calendar and schedule alignment for CTE students, and a lack of awareness of CTE opportunities among
parents and school counselors.2 Representative Karen Umberger and the New Hampshire CTE Advisory Board are interested in understanding what barriers discourage enrollment in CTE programs in New Hampshire and how the state might work to overcome them. In this report, we identify barriers to participation in CTE as well as means of increasing access to CTE.