Welcome to CTE Futures
Welcome to CTE Futures! I’m thrilled you’ve found your way here. This site is designed to be a trusted, centralized source of high-quality research, analysis, and insights about the future of work, with a particular focus on how artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are reshaping labor markets, skill demands, and career and technical education (CTE) programs. It also serves as the home base for the Ready AI Faculty Fellowship, a two-year community of practice I’m leading in partnership with the Tennessee Board of Regents. Whether you’re an educator, policymaker, researcher, student, or simply curious about the intersection of technology and workforce preparation, my hope is that you will find both knowledge and community here.
For much of the 20th century, CTE was weighed down by a painful legacy. Often referred to as “vocational education,” it too frequently served as a sorting mechanism that tracked students—especially students of color, English learners, and those from low-income backgrounds—into narrow, low-wage, and low-opportunity jobs. These programs were often disconnected from broader educational aspirations, reinforcing inequality instead of breaking it.
Over the past few decades, however, CTE has undergone a profound transformation. Today’s CTE is not about limiting options but expanding them. Rigorous, high-quality programs of study now span high-growth, high-wage industries such as advanced manufacturing, healthcare, information technology, renewable energy, and beyond. Modern CTE is designed to serve a diverse and talented pool of students, opening doors to both immediate career opportunities and further postsecondary education. From high school classrooms to community colleges and beyond, CTE has become a critical pathway for ensuring that students from all backgrounds can access relevant, future-ready learning and work.
We now stand at a new turning point. The rapid advancement of AI and automation represents one of the most significant shifts in work since the industrial revolution. On the one hand, AI poses clear threats to “business as usual.” Entire categories of routine, repetitive, or predictable tasks are at risk of being automated, reshaping occupational structures across nearly every sector. Workforce automation is already changing the skills required in fields ranging from logistics to healthcare, finance to education.
Yet AI is not only a story of disruption—it is also a story of opportunity. If harnessed thoughtfully, AI has the potential to elevate human work, not replace it. It can take over rote tasks, freeing up time and energy for creativity, problem-solving, and innovation. It can increase productivity, improve safety, and open new frontiers for industries that rely on human judgment, care, and collaboration. For CTE, this moment is both a challenge and an invitation: to rethink how we prepare students, to redesign programs that equip learners with durable skills, and to ensure that equity and opportunity remain at the center of technological change.
What You Can Expect from CTE Futures
CTE Futures will serve as a living resource for those navigating this landscape. Here, you can expect regular blog updates with:
Timely news and commentary on developments in AI, automation, and workforce policy.
Summaries of cutting-edge research that connect the dots between labor market trends and CTE program design.
Guest voices and perspectives from educators, industry leaders, and fellows in the Ready AI Faculty Fellowship community.
This site will evolve as the issues evolve, and my commitment is to keep it fresh, engaging, and useful for practitioners and policymakers alike.
Thank you for taking the time to visit CTE Futures. Your engagement matters—because the future of work is not something that simply “happens” to us. It is something we can shape, together, through thoughtful research, intentional program design, and collaborative communities of practice. I invite you to return often, share what resonates, and join in the conversations that will define how CTE meets the challenge—and promise—of artificial intelligence.
Cameron Sublett