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Major · Education

Pedagogy training for skilled-trade and CTE classroom instructors

Trade and Industrial Teacher Education (CIP 13.1320) prepares journeymen, technicians, and trade veterans to teach welding, automotive, HVAC, electrical, construction, and manufacturing in secondary and postsecondary CTE programs. About 313 students complete it across 42 colleges, with bachelor’s grads earning $51,376 and associate’s-only completers $34,368.

Schools offering
42
Annual completions
313
Typical degree level
Associate's + Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$50k

About this major

Trade and Industrial Teacher Education (CIP 13.1320) prepares individuals to teach specific vocational trades and industries at secondary and postsecondary levels — welding, automotive, HVAC, electrical, construction, manufacturing, and other career-and-technical-education subjects. The major is structured around the assumption that you arrive with the trade content already in hand: a journeyman card, ASE or NCCER certification, EPA 608, a state contractor license, or a military-occupational-specialty equivalent earned across three to seven years of full-time field work. Coursework adds the pedagogy layer — adolescent development, classroom management, curriculum design, CTE methods, assessment, special-education and English-learner instruction, and the integration of OSHA-grade safety standards into hands-on shop teaching. A supervised student-teaching placement in a real high-school CTE shop or community-college lab caps the bachelor’s and feeds into state CTE licensure.

The major fits working tradespeople moving into teaching as a second career — journeymen electricians, welders, HVAC techs, auto mechanics, and apprenticeship instructors who want to keep working in the trade but train the next generation rather than swing tools full-time. Day-to-day classroom work rewards patience with novice learners, the temperament to translate craft knowledge into repeatable lesson sequences, and willingness to navigate the public-school bureaucracy that comes with state licensure: observation cycles, Praxis or state-equivalent exams, and Perkins V curriculum alignment. Cohorts skew older than typical undergraduate populations and run heavy on evening and online formats designed for adults already working full-time.

One grounded observation about scale and structure: 313 students complete this CIP across 42 colleges, with bachelor’s grads earning $51,376 and associate’s-only completers $34,368. The University of Louisville alone graduates 128 — roughly 41% of the national total — through an Occupational Training and Development bachelor’s tied to Kentucky’s alternative-route CTE certification. Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (65), University of Central Missouri (24), and Cal State Sacramento (23) round out the producer base. The named entry destinations — CTE secondary teachers at $63,910 (-1.8% projected growth) and CTE postsecondary teachers at $61,490 (0.7% growth) — sit below journeyman trade pay, which explains why the pipeline runs short of district demand for welding, HVAC, automotive, and electrical instructors driven by Perkins V funding and IIJA infrastructure expansion.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Career/technical education teachers, postsecondary $61k +0.7% Bachelor's degree
Career/technical education teachers, secondary school $64k -1.8% Bachelor's degree
Education teachers, postsecondary $72k +2.1% Doctoral or professional degree
Career/technical education teachers, middle school $64k -2.0% Bachelor's degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$50k

Associate's vs Bachelor's — early-career earnings

Associate's

$34k

Bachelor's

$51k

Who this major is for

Good signs this major fits: you already hold a journeyman card, ASE certification, NCCER credential, EPA 608, or contractor license backed by three-to-seven years of full-time trade work, since the program assumes you bring the content and adds the pedagogy; you find satisfaction teaching apprentices on the job site and want to formalize that into a classroom credential; the $63,910 BLS median for CTE secondary teachers reads as a workable tradeoff against shop-floor or contractor pay when paired with a defined-benefit pension and summer-industry stipends; your local district faces welding, HVAC, automotive, electrical, or advanced-manufacturing shortages and offers signing bonuses or moonlighting permission for certified instructors; and the working-adult bachelor’s completion format at programs like Louisville (128 completions), SIU-Carbondale (65), or Central Missouri (24) lines up with your schedule.

Reasons to pause: entering straight from high school without trade experience generally fails the licensure prerequisite, since most state CTE routes require documented full-time field work before recognizing the credential; a current journeyman wage of $80,000-$110,000 makes the entry CTE pay a meaningful cut to absorb; classroom autonomy comes wrapped in public-school overhead — observation cycles, Praxis or state exams, Perkins V reporting, and IEP coordination — that some shop-floor veterans find draining. If your goal is corporate technical training rather than K-12 or community-college teaching, direct industry-credential routes (NCCER instructor certification, manufacturer train-the-trainer programs) reach that destination faster than this CIP does. Verify your target state’s industry-experience minimum, accepted credential list, and the program’s alternative-route alignment before enrolling — for licensure-driven majors, that detail outranks ranking lists.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Trade and Industrial Teacher Education

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
University of Louisville Louisville, KY 0 128 128
Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Carbondale, IL 0 65 65
University of Central Missouri Warrensburg, MO 0 24 24
California State University-Sacramento Sacramento, CA 0 23 23
University of Central Florida Orlando, FL 0 14 14
Valdosta State University Valdosta, GA 0 12 12
Eastern New Mexico University-Main Campus Portales, NM 0 7 7
Indiana University of Pennsylvania-Main Campus Indiana, PA 1 6 7
Fitchburg State University Fitchburg, MA 0 5 5
California State University-San Bernardino San Bernardino, CA 0 4 4
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

Physical Education Teaching and Coaching

4,787 completions/yr

Music Teacher Education

3,229 completions/yr

English/Language Arts Teacher Education

1,846 completions/yr

Social Studies Teacher Education

1,336 completions/yr

Mathematics Teacher Education

1,090 completions/yr

Art Teacher Education

1,062 completions/yr

Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas, Other

912 completions/yr

Health Teacher Education

848 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What do Trade and Industrial Teacher Education majors actually study day-to-day?
Coursework runs along two tracks. The pedagogy track covers adolescent development, classroom management, curriculum design, CTE-specific methods, assessment, special-education and English-learner instruction, and integration of safety standards into shop instruction. The trade-validation track documents your existing industry skills against state CTE frameworks and Perkins V program requirements, often through a portfolio review of your journeyman card, industry credentials, or apprenticeship completion records. The capstone is a supervised student-teaching placement in a real high-school CTE shop or community-college lab, where you co-teach welding, auto, HVAC, electrical, or construction sections under a mentor instructor.
Do I need years of trade experience before enrolling?
Usually yes — Trade and Industrial Teacher Ed is structured around the assumption that you bring the trade content and the program adds the pedagogy. Most state CTE licensure routes require three to seven years of documented full-time work in your trade, plus an industry credential (journeyman card, ASE certification, NCCER credential, EPA 608, state contractor license, or military-occupational-specialty equivalent). The bachelor’s completion is built for working adults: cohorts are heavy with current journeymen, retired military trainers, apprenticeship instructors, and shop-floor supervisors moving into teaching. Verify your target state’s exact industry-experience minimum and credential list before committing.
What jobs do graduates actually land?
The named entry destinations are CTE secondary teachers ($63,910 median, -1.8% projected growth) and CTE postsecondary teachers ($61,490 median, 0.7% growth) — both list a bachelor’s as the typical credential. Real-world placements split between high-school CTE programs (welding, auto, HVAC, electrical, construction, manufacturing shops) and community-college or technical-college trade departments. Adjacent destinations not coded under K-12 SOCs include apprenticeship coordinator roles in joint apprenticeship and training committees, Job Corps and military training instructor positions, and corporate technical-trainer jobs at firms like Lincoln Electric, Honeywell, or 3M. The Education teachers postsecondary line ($72,090, 2.1% growth) requires a doctorate and is a mid-career outcome rather than entry-level.
Why does the University of Louisville produce so many graduates?
Louisville (128 completions, roughly 41% of the national 313) runs an Occupational Training and Development bachelor’s tied directly to Kentucky’s alternative-route CTE certification, structured for working tradespeople who already hold an associate’s in a trade plus industry credentials. The cohort is heavy with HVAC technicians, welders, electricians, and auto specialists earning the bachelor’s required to teach in Kentucky and reciprocity states. Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (65) operates a parallel program serving the upper Midwest. University of Central Missouri (24), Cal State Sacramento (23), and UCF (14) round out the producer base — most other programs graduate fewer than ten per year.
Why are there only 313 completions a year across 42 colleges?
The number is small partly because many universities roll trade-and-industrial students into broader Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas, Other (CIP 13.1399, 912 completions) or report them inside the trade CIP itself rather than under 13.1320. Many state CTE certification routes also bypass a full bachelor’s entirely — a journeyman with an associate’s and a state-issued CTE credential can teach without ever completing this CIP. The combined effect is a small named producer base concentrated at a handful of state universities (Louisville, SIU-Carbondale, Central Missouri, Sacramento State) running dedicated bachelor’s-completion pipelines, while the broader CTE-instructor workforce enters through alternative routes that don’t show up in this CIP at all.
Is there a genuine shortage of CTE teachers?
Yes, particularly in welding, HVAC, automotive, electrical, and advanced manufacturing. Federal Perkins V funding and the IIJA infrastructure expansion have pushed states to grow apprenticeship and high-school CTE programs faster than the trade-teacher pipeline can fill positions, and the existing CTE workforce skews older with many instructors approaching retirement. Pay is the chronic friction — a journeyman electrician earning $80,000-$110,000 in the field takes a meaningful pay cut to enter teaching at the $63,910 secondary CTE median, which is why districts increasingly bundle signing bonuses, summer-industry-stipend programs, and contractor-side moonlighting permission to attract certified trade teachers.