Jeremy Oskins worked in the automotive and heavy equipment industry for 30 years. During that time, he saw a steadily declining number of young people entering the field. Now, he’s working to be part of the solution that reverses that trend.
In August 2023, Oskins began a new career as a career and technical education automotive teacher at Comanche High School in his small, rural town of Comanche, Texas. In his short tenure, he’s grown the high school’s small engines automotive program from 52 students to 83, and he’s had to turn away 13 students for lack of space. Some of the students enrolled in his classes have begun to work in the school’s on-site automotive repair facility where they earn a paycheck, receive oversight from an industry expert, and gain experience they can apply in the workforce.
Principal Joni Patterson said the gamble she took hiring Oskins “is paying dividends.” Oskins had no former experience teaching before accepting the job at Comanche High School. Being part of a “District of Innovation”—a statewide initiative that exempts eligible districts from certain laws—allows the school to hire CTE teachers based on industry experience, even when they don’t have a teaching license.
“As an administrator, that’s truly what you want with CTE hires, because there’s no one that’s going to know better than someone coming straight from the industry what the kids need to know in order to get hired,” said Patterson. “The flip side is that you roll a dice. They may know the material, but can they tell it to a kid and teach it to them? Jeremy just happened to be capable of doing both.”
Comanche High School was fortunate that it found an experienced industry professional who was ready for a career change—and who seemingly possessed natural teacher instincts. But as CTE evolves beyond the traditional skilled trades, gets more popular among students, and strives to meet growing labor force demands, finding enough CTE teachers nationwide to meet the demand will require far more than luck.
CTE grows in popularity among students
Recent statistics show a sharp rise in students taking CTE courses. Enrollment in public two-year colleges with strong vocational programs grew more than 13 percent two years in a row and currently accounts for nearly 20 percent of total enrollment in public two-year colleges, according to newly released data from fall 2024 from the National Student Clearinghouse. In comparison, total postsecondary enrollment rose just 4.5 percent this fall over last.
Some of the seats in community college CTE courses are occupied by high school students participating in dual enrollment programs, a trend that is growing as an increasing number of districts push career-focused skills acquisition.
In 2019, an overwhelming majority (85 percent) of high school graduates had earned at least one Carnegie credit, equaling 120 hours of class time in a particular subject, in a career education course, with information technology courses being the most popular subject area.
James E. Bartlett, an associate professor of workforce development and community college leadership at Old Dominion University, sees the uptick in CTE interest driven in part by labor force needs.
“The labor market is requiring people to have these skills. So there’s jobs out there in the labor market that we’re seeing that with the different technology-related positions, like green energy, advanced manufacturing, and health care,” he said. “And we’re seeing that there’s a skills gap.”
CTE teaching positions harder to fill than other teacher roles
There’s also a perennial gap in the demand for and supply of CTE instructors—and closing that gap is more challenging than filling other teacher vacancies, experts say.
A 2021 report by the Association for Career and Technical Education, or ACTE, found that 86 percent of state directors reported a moderate or severe CTE teacher shortage in at least one CTE career cluster at the high school level. Twenty-eight states in the United States reported CTE teacher shortages to the U.S. Department of Education in the 2023-24 school year.
Several factors make recruiting CTE teachers particularly challenging.
Ideally, these teachers would possess experience in their given industry—whether that’s automotive repair, IT, or some other profession. And a professional with industry experience likely will take a significant pay cut to teach CTE at a public school.
“In many cases, there’s such pay disparity that it’s really hard for someone to make that type of shift,” Bartlett said.
CTE teachers face unique challenges on the job, too. They’re expected to be able to impart important skills to students, and to keep up with ever-evolving industry skills, said Catherine Imperatore, ACTE’s research and content director. It’s a tough ask for teachers focused primarily on teaching—not acquiring—skills.
What’s more, CTE teachers’ responsibilities typically extend beyond the classroom. They’re often tasked with establishing and growing partnerships with local industry professionals willing to take on students for hands-on experience in apprenticeships or internships, said Imperatore.
Oskins can relate. “It does take a lot of time, before school and after school and on Saturdays,” he said. “I’ve got six classes a day.
“I have to teach and then also help with the financing of what’s going on in the [on-campus] shop and the after-hours repairs, and meeting with customers, but also building relationships with local industry professionals,” said Oskins, who spoke with Education Week as he prepared for a trip to Wyoming in an effort to forge a relationship with a technical college in hopes that his students might be able to attend a summer automotive program there.
In the meantime, Oskins ticks off a number of local partnerships he’s forged recently, so his students can gain more hands-on experience. One is with a tractor dealership. One is with a facility that rents small and heavy equipment, and another is with a car dealership that has locations in four different cities.
He’s also eyeing two more partnerships: one with a Toyota dealership about 30 miles away, and another with a tractor dealership.
The payoff of teaching can be significant
Though the challenges and workload are significant, some do find teaching CTE rewarding and worth the potential tradeoffs, Bartlett said. Industry professionals, especially those who have been in the field for a while, may want to share their craft or experience with the next generation, he said.
These fields are demanding physically or otherwise, noted Bartlett, and teaching provides an attractive alternative after a taxing career. Such was the case with Oskins.
“I spent 200 and some days on the road chasing cranes to fix, and I worked 15, 16, 18 hours a day, and came home to an empty hotel room [while on the road],” he said.
As a teacher, Oskins’ work hours remain long but, according to him, there’s a better payoff.
“I’m spending time with people in the community, and I’m spending time with some great kids. I’m learning things from these kids,” he said. “I get a paycheck to do this. Not much of a paycheck. But you really couldn’t ask for a better job.”
