Career and Technical Education

Career and Technical Education programs are designed to meet the educational needs of students who are seeking preparation for immediate employment or advancement within career fields. The schools for all CTE programs are structured as stackable credentials –certificate (30 hours), diploma (45 hours), degree (60 hours).  Technical and Career programs lead to the Associate of Applied Science degree and are transferrable to a university. For more information about possible transferability, see the program advisor.

Excelerated Programs are designed for individuals to gain education and training that prepares them for outstanding careers. The objective is to make reaching those goals as simple as possible. These career programs are in an accelerated format that will allow students to earn a diploma in one year. Students who successfully complete the program will receive both a certificate and diploma that will give them the credentials they need to begin a career, and students can quickly earn their associate degree in addition to the core program, allowing transfer to a four-year institution.

Numbering of Courses/Student Classification

Courses are identified by name and number. Each course in the numbering system has a three-letter prefix which identifies the subject field to which the course belongs. For example, ENG identifies an English course, and MAT identifies a math course.  Those numbered from 1001 to 1999 are considered freshman courses and those from 2001 to 2999, sophomore courses. The courses offered in Developmental Studies are not designed for transfer credit. Developmental courses are not considered in semester hours to meet graduation requirements. A student who has earned less than 24 semester hours is designated a freshman; one who has earned 24 semester hours or more and 48 quality points is considered a sophomore. As a general rule, a student should choose courses in accordance with his/her class designation.

The numbers, from the left, following the prefix represent the following:

• First number designates year
  • Those numbered from 1001 to 1999 are considered freshmen courses and those from 2001 to 2999, sophomore courses.  For example, ENG 1113 indicates first year’s work in English, while ENG 2113 indicates second year’s work in English.
  • All courses designed for institutional credit only (developmental, not for transfer) begin with a zero “0”.  For example, MAT 0123 indicates institutional Mathematics credit only, which is not transferable.
• Second number designates grouping
  • Note –Groupings are consistent for each year but not from year one to year two.  For example, MAT 16xx indicates a freshmen course in the Calculus group.
• Third number designates sequence in a group
  • For example, MAT 161x indicates the first freshmen course in the Calculus group (Calculus I), while 162x indicates the second course in that group (Calculus II).
• Fourth number designates course credit hours
  • The three figures in parentheses after the description of each academic and technical course indicate the number of semester hours credit for the course, the number of lecture hours each week, and the number of laboratory or activity hours each week, respectively.