Career Technical Education (CTE) provides learners with the knowledge and skills they need to be prepared for successful careers. Learners enrolled in CTE programs progress along a specific pathway that is geared for students to learn technical skills, academic skills, employability skills and leadership skills. Leadership skills are learned through the Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSO) in conjunction with classroom instruction.

Pathways are set up to follow 3 distinct levels of learning.  The first level is called the Introduction Level which brings a broad perspective to various career clusters and pathways.  For many pathways at the technical level, more than one class is offered at OHS. Technical level students gain the necessary skills and knowledge to move on to the Application Level coursework.  At the Application level, students demonstrate in real world work based learning opportunities skills and knowledge that they have learned through the course sequence.

CTE students are classified in the following categories. 

Participant: A student who has earned (.5) but less than two (2) credits in a single career and technical education (CTE) pathway

Concentrator: A student who has earned two (2) or more credits in a single approved CTE pathway with those credits being a combination of any two course levels AND has met at least 70% proficiency on the technical skills across those 2.0 credits.

Completer:  A student who has 3 CTE credits and qualifies for one of the following: Earning an industry-recognized certification (IRC) or a passing score on a third-party, end-of-pathway assessment.