Country edition: USA Beta
USA Edition · Career Clusters

The 14 Career Clusters

14 clusters·72 sub-clusters·14 hubs open

The U.S. has no Science, Commerce and Arts streams. Most states organise career and technical education (CTE) with the 14 Career Clusters of the National Career Clusters® Framework instead. Pick a field to see its sub-clusters and the careers in it.

The framework

What a Career Cluster is

Framework
National Career Clusters® Framework, modernized framework, released 2024. The Career Clusters Framework serves as the foundation for designing consistent, high-quality Career Technical Education (CTE) and career pathway programs.
Advance CTE
The National Career Clusters FrameworkAdvance CTE
Checked
20 Oct 2026
View source
Who uses it
First introduced in 2002, a version of the Framework is used by the majority of states with Advance CTE as its steward.
Advance CTE crosswalk
Framework Crosswalk: CIP, SOC, NAICS, Career Cluster, and Sub-Cluster (SOC – Career Clusters Crosswalk, .xlsx)Advance CTE
Checked
20 Oct 2026
View source
Clusters
Industry sectors as defined by groupings from Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) and North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes.
Advance CTE
The National Career Clusters FrameworkAdvance CTE
Checked
20 Oct 2026
View source
Sub-Clusters
Major groupings of career areas within a given field that have similar skills as defined by industry area.
Advance CTE
The National Career Clusters FrameworkAdvance CTE
Checked
20 Oct 2026
View source
Cross-Cutting Clusters
Clusters that are based on both sector-specific and contextualized functions instead of purely discrete industry sectors. These Clusters have both Sub-Clusters and implications for courses taken in all other Career Clusters.
Advance CTE
The National Career Clusters FrameworkAdvance CTE
Checked
20 Oct 2026
View source
All 14

Pick a cluster

Open clusters have a hub page with their sub-clusters and the career pages on this site. The others are planned; the card shows the build phase.

Sources

Where these facts come from

Cluster names, definitions, sub-clusters and example programs are copied from each cluster's page on careertech.org. Which career sits in which cluster comes from Advance CTE's own SOC crosswalk. Example programs of study are illustrative and vary from state to state.