Best Career/Technical Education Teacher, Secondary School programs in Tennessee, ranked by enrollment
Teach occupational, vocational, career, or technical subjects to students at the secondary school.
3 schools in Tennessee run programs that feed this job, graduating 5 people a year. The job pays a median of $61,700 in Tennessee across about 2,940 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).
Fields of study in Tennessee that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.
2 programs in Tennessee that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year in Tennessee (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Tennessee page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 13.1303In Tennessee → | 4 | 80.0% | 3 | $43,033 | $26,044 |
| 2 | CIP 13.1308In Tennessee → | 1 | 20.0% | 1 | $43,033 | $26,044 |
Top 3 schools in Tennessee
Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 2 of the 3 schools in this state.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carson - Newman University Jefferson City, TN Private not-for-profit · 2 feeder programs | 2 | Family and Consumer Sciences/Home Economics Teacher Education | $42,222 | 53% | $19,537 | 90% |
| 2 | Lee University Cleveland, TN Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 2 | Business and Innovation/Entrepreneurship Teacher Education | $45,248 | 63% | $18,918 | 71% |
| 3 | Trevecca Nazarene University Nashville, TN Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 1 | Business and Innovation/Entrepreneurship Teacher Education | — | 53% | $14,286 | 69% |
All 3 schools in Tennessee
Every school in Tennessee with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.
| School | City | Control | Graduates / yr | Feeder programs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carson - Newman University | Jefferson City | Private not-for-profit | 2 | 2 |
| Lee University | Cleveland | Private not-for-profit | 2 | 1 |
| Trevecca Nazarene University | Nashville | Private not-for-profit | 1 | 1 |
What career/technical education teachers, secondary school earn in Tennessee
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
U.S. median $66,270. Tennessee pays below the national figure.
Concentrated here: Tennessee employs more of this job per worker than the U.S. average.
Metro areas in Tennessee
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.
How to get in
The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School page.
How to become a Career/Technical Education Teacher, Secondary School
Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0- Typical entry education
- Bachelor's degree
- Work experience needed
- Less than 5 years
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Top skills
The same job in other states
Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.
Related careers in Tennessee
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 8 majors mapped to Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School8 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 13.1301Agricultural Teacher Education
- 13.1303Business and Innovation/Entrepreneurship Teacher Education
- 13.1308Family and Consumer Sciences/Home Economics Teacher Education
- 13.1309Technology Teacher Education/Industrial Arts Teacher Education
- 13.1310Sales and Marketing Operations/Marketing and Distribution Teacher Education
- 13.1319Technical Teacher Education
- 13.1320Trade and Industrial Teacher Education
- 13.1327Health Occupations Teacher Education
Common questions
Answers for people weighing career/technical education teachers, secondary school programs in Tennessee.
What degree do you need to become a Career/Technical Education Teacher, Secondary School?+
Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Business and Innovation/Entrepreneurship Teacher Education, which awarded 4 degrees in Tennessee in 2024-25, 80.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Career/Technical Education Teacher, Secondary School?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 2 programs to this occupation. The largest are Teacher Education and Professional Development. Together they graduate about 5 people a year in Tennessee.
How much do career/technical education teachers, secondary school earn in Tennessee?+
The median is $61,700 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 6.9% below the U.S. median of $66,270. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for career/technical education teachers, secondary school growing?+
BLS projects a -1.8% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, decline, with roughly 6,200 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career in Tennessee?+
3 institutions in Tennessee reported graduates from at least one of the 2 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do career/technical education teachers, secondary school work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Teacher, Instructor, Technology Education Teacher, Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher (FACS Teacher) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 25-2032.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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