Career and technical education (CTE) is usually on the back burner when it comes to education reporting. But the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is putting CTE front and center in a new fellowship program for higher education journalists.
The foundation on Tuesday announced the 10 journalists who are part of the first group to receive the Woodrow Wilson Higher Education Media Fellowships to examine higher education issues, particularly CTE. The fellows represent local and national organizations, including education journalists from newspapers, magazines, radio and trade publications.
The new program aims to increase the number of journalists who have the tools and networks to provide more comprehensive coverage of postsecondary education, according to the foundation. Each fellow will receive an award of $10,000 — a $5,000 stipend and $5,000 to support a special CTE reporting project. They also will attend an expense-paid symposium focused on topics related to postsecondary CTE and professional development.
Funding for the program will support four fellowship classes. Fellows from the first class will be invited to mentor future classes.
“The Woodrow Wilson Higher Education Media Fellowship will play a critical role in improving the breadth and depth of postsecondary career and technical education coverage,” said Jennifer Zeisler, senior program director of career readiness at the ECMC Foundation, which provided part of the funding for the program through its CTE Leadership Collaborative.
CTE, especially at the postsecondary level, has started to make more headlines as business and industry clamor for more skilled workers. That, in turn, has prompted more local, state and national lawmakers to call for more CTE at colleges, particularly community colleges.
