Initial Career and Technical Educator (CTE) Certificate

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The Initial CTE certificate is the first level certificate that an educator can apply for once the completion of either the CTE Plan 1: University Route OR the CTE Plan 2: Business & Industry Route CTE program and have verified the required experience for each CTE VCODE(s) requested. CTE plans are listed below.

CTE Plan 1: University Requirements

Full Teacher Program

Plan 1 is for obtaining the CTE Agriculture Ed, CTE Business & Marketing Ed, CTE Family & Consumer Science Ed, and CTE Technology Ed endorsements.

  • Must hold a bachelor's degree.
  • Must complete any state's approved CTE program in one of the four broad endorsement areas: Agriculture Education, Business and Marketing Education, **Family and Consumer Sciences Education, or Technology Education.
  • Must complete an approved content knowledge test (WEST-E or other approved test) in the specific subject area candidate recommended. To view testing information, please follow the Information on Testing link.
  • One year of occupational industry experience (2,000 hours) in the subject area other than teaching in the past ten years. If all or part of the 2,000 hours is more than ten years old, candidates must complete an additional 300 hours of recent (occurring in the last two years) occupational experience, which can be volunteer hours in the CTE subject area. Volunteer hours can only be used for the 300 hours of recent industry experience. Fill out the 4075V–CTE Employer Verification Form to verify your non-teaching experience. 
  • Must also apply for the Residency Teacher Certificate or use it to add the endorsement to your teaching certificate and take the basic skills test in reading, writing, and math and the content knowledge test and obtain the Residency Teacher Certificate or the endorsement before the Initial CTE Certificate can be issued AND
  • Submission of fingerprints for a background check is required if a valid certificate is not already on file.


Family and Consumer Science Ed Note: Teaching experience may be used for the 2,000 hours of experience. 

CTE Plan 2: Business & Industry Requirements

Specialty Program Areas

Plan 2 is for Specialty Areas within Agriculture, Business & Marketing, Family & Consumer Sciences, Health & Human Services, and Skills & Technology Sciences.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The plan 2 CTE program will not gain the CTE Agriculture V010000; Business & Marketing Ed V078000; CTE Family & Consumer Science Ed V200002 or CTE Technology Ed V210100 VCODES.

Experience Note: 
  • A total of three years (6,000 hours) of occupational experience needs to be verified in the past ten years in each VCODE requested.
  • One year of occupational industry experience (2,000 hours) in the subject area besides teaching must be verified. If all or part of the 2,000 hours is more than ten years old, candidates must complete an additional 300 hours of recent (occurring in the last two years) occupational experience, which can be volunteer hours in the CTE subject area. Volunteer hours can only be used for the 300 hours of recent industry experience. Fill out the 4075V–CTE Employer Verification Form to verify your non-teaching experience. 
  • The applicant may use up to 4,000 hours of teaching experience in the CTE subject area and 2,000 hours of occupational experience (non-teaching) in the past ten years. Fill out the 4075H–CTE Teaching Experience Verification Form to verify your teaching experience.
BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE AND HEALTH SCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY HOURS NOTE: May use all 6,000 hours of teaching experience in biology. Please submit form 4075H.

STEM HOURS NOTE: May use all 6,000 hours of teaching experience in science, technology, engineering, and math. Please submit form 4075H.

OUT-OF-STATE NOTE: Must submit a copy of out-of-state CTE (vocational) certificate and verification of three years teaching in grades 7-12 in the specific subject area OR verification of a CTE program completion from another state. 2,000 hours of non-teaching industry experience in the specific specialty area in the past ten years must be verified.

One full year (2,000 hours) of non-teaching industry experience in the specific specialty area in the past ten years must be verified. Please submit form 4075V.

  • Out-of-state applicants applying for Agriculture, Business and Marketing Ed, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Technology Ed, the 2,000 hours of non-teaching industry experience in the past ten years must be verified. Fill out the 4075V–CTE Employer Verification Form to verify your non-teaching experience. Applicants must also apply for the Residency Teacher Certificate and meet all requirements for the Residency Teacher Certificate before the Initial CTE Certificate can be issued.
For all other CTE specialty areas, please see the experience note above. 

Apply

To apply for the CTE Initial Certificate, please log in to your E-Cert account. Once the 'Welcome Educator' pages have come up, scroll down to 'Apply for a Washington Credential Here' and choose the Initial CTE application.

Once you review the requirements above and believe you meet those requirements, please have all forms, documents, and verification in PDF format attachments in order to "upload" your documents during the application process. If you have all the necessary documentation to apply for this certificate, log in to E-Certification

IMPORTANT: Please note that application fees are NOT refundable. Ensure that you select and submit the correct application. If you have questions regarding your application, please contact the OSPI certification team.