SACRAMENTO – The California Community Colleges will join with others this month to celebrate its workforce mission as part of the national Career and Technical Education Month, initiated by the Association for Career and Technical Education.

Career and Technical Education Month, or CTE, Month, is a public awareness campaign that takes place each February to celebrate the value of career technical education and the achievements and accomplishments of these programs across the country.

“California needs a strong workforce to meet the needs of employers in our many regional economies,” said Van Ton-Quinlivan, vice chancellor for Workforce and Economic Development. “Students look to our colleges for guided pathways to current and future jobs. Career technical education has shown to be effective enabler of social mobility.”

According to a recent EducationDive article, “The system’s Salary Surfer database provides prospective and current students with a median view of earning potential before pursuing a degree, and potential income for two and five years following completion.”

California is experiencing a remarkable resurgence in career technical education. An unprecedented $200 million in new Strong Workforce Program funds from the state will spur “more and better” career technical education amongst the 113 community colleges.

This week local colleges and their regions completed their plans with strategies on how best to utilize the funding towards the goal of creating one million more middle-skilled workers.

The California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in the nation composed of 72 districts and 113 colleges serving 2.1 million students a year.

For more information about the community colleges, please visit http://californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu , https://www.facebook.com/CACommColleges or https://twitter.com/CalCommColleges .