Timeless Teachings in a Changing World

Vocational education (education based on occupation or employment), also known as career and technical education (CTE) or technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is education that prepares people for specific trades, crafts and careers at various levels from a trade, a craft, technician, or a high professional practitioner position.

In Craft vocations are usually based on manual or practical activities, traditionally non-academic, related to a specific trade, occupation, or vocation. It is sometimes referred to as technical education as the trainee directly develops expertise in a particular group of techniques. Vocational education spans craft, further and higher education.

Vocational education may be classified as teaching procedural knowledge. This can be contrasted with declarative knowledge, as used in education in a usually broader scientific field, which might concentrate on theory and abstract conceptual knowledge, characteristic of tertiary education. Vocational education can be at the secondary, post-secondary level, further education, and higher education level and can interact with the apprenticeship system. Increasingly, vocational education can be recognized in terms of recognition of prior learning and partial academic credit towards tertiary education (e.g., at a university) as credit.