ACTE Postsecondary CTE Summit 2026

Manufacturing is entering a new era bolstered by artificial intelligence, and employers are looking for talent that can keep pace. As the workforce development and education affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers, the Manufacturing Institute works directly with manufacturers across the country to identify emerging skill needs and build solutions that strengthen the talent pipeline. Join us for a first look at our new AI Skills Training Suite, designed specifically for manufacturing learners and available at no cost. Explore how community colleges can integrate AI skills into technical programs, workforce training, and employer partnerships while helping students build confidence with the technologies reshaping manufacturing careers. Learn where manufacturers are seeing AI skills gaps emerge, how education can respond, and what resources can help prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow.

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Postsecondary institutions face growing challenges in student retention, major changes, and workforce alignment. While students possess abundant natural talent, an "exposure gap" often prevents them from connecting their innate aptitudes with viable career pathways and industry certifications.
This interactive Learning Lab demonstrates how leveraging aptitudes and industry certification data transforms the entire student lifecycle:
Recruitment & Admissions: Guide undecided applicants toward best-fit majors and technical pathways early.
Student Retention & Advising: Personalize first-year experiences and provide proactive support using positive, strength-based aptitude messaging.
Career Services & Employer Alignment: Connect students with industry certifications and local employer networks to foster social and economic mobility.
Participants will examine national student data, explore live aptitude-to-career matching, and learn actionable strategies to reduce major switching, lower student debt, and build strong workforce pipelines.

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Today’s postsecondary CTE students do not all enter at the same starting point or follow the same path to completion. A dual enrollment student may arrive with technical coursework and industry credentials already in hand. An adult learner may bring years of workplace experience but little formal recognition of those skills. Others may enter seeking a degree, a short-term credential, career advancement, or the opportunity to reskill. And their goals may change along the way. How can colleges and technical schools design programs that work for all of them?

This interactive session challenges the traditional linear pathway and explores how postsecondary CTE programs can better accommodate multiple learner journeys. Participants will consider how multiple entry and exit points, common foundational learning, modular program components, recognition of prior learning, and portable credentials can create pathways that allow students to build on what they already know while continuing to move toward their education and career goals.

Through learner scenarios and cross-program examples, participants will examine how the same program might serve very different students without sacrificing coherence or rigor. Attendees will leave with new perspectives and practical ideas to bring back to their colleagues and institutions as they consider how program design and credential architecture can better support the varied ways students enter, progress through, exit, and return to postsecondary CTE.

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Postsecondary CTE leaders have no shortage of important priorities, but knowing what matters and getting it done are two different things. How do we move from ambitious goals and strategic priorities to focused action and measurable results?


In this interactive 45-minute Learning Lab, participants will explore how Franklin Covey’s 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX) can help teams focus on the outcomes that matter most and identify the actions they can influence to move those outcomes forward. Through practical postsecondary CTE examples, participants will see how to translate a priority into a Wildly Important Goal (WIG), identify meaningful lead measures, and use the remaining disciplines to create a system for execution and accountability.


Participants will have an opportunity to apply the WIG and lead-measure concepts to a CTE priority of their own while gaining practical ideas they can take back to their institution.


Come ready to identify one priority that matters and explore what it would take to actually move it.
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AI is automating routine technical work across many fields, and employers now expect more judgment, communication, and client-facing skill than before — things that are harder to teach and measure. Accounting is a clear example: advisory work is now the field's fastest-growing area, projected to grow 99% over the next three years, and firms say communication and AI fluency matter as much as technical certification for new hires. If your program is facing a similar shift — where the job is changing faster than the curriculum — this session offers a concrete model for responding.

This session will speak about Client Advisory Services (CAS) — what it is, why it's growing, and what it means for the accounting talent pipeline. We'll look at how Intuit's Accounting Futures Program pairs free technical certification with real employer relationships — mentorship and micro-internships. Participants leave with transferable ideas for building advisory skills into any program, and for getting industry partners more involved in student readiness.



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