Trailblazers helps Virginia Career, Technical, and Adult Education professionals find and use data about occupations and employment to plan courses and programs. We can also help you to find data and information for other purposes: preparing grant proposals, answering questions from the school board, educating students and parents about education requirements and job opportunities, and more. When you have data questions, please contact us.
CTE Equity: Strategies & Resources
A collection of some of the most helpful and comprehensive strategies, practices and resources that address the needs of CTE special populations: Equity Strategies & Resources document.
CTE Administrator Training
Access the 12/3/2020 CTE Administrator Training Session PowerPoint with links to resources: Navigating CTE Instruction Using Virtual Resources.
Occupational Projections
The most recent occupational projections for Virginia and its Local Workforce Development Areas are available on the Labor Market Data page.
Occupations and Careers
- Career One Stop Occupation Profiles: Get all the details about any occupation.
- My Next Move: A fast, simple, no-registration-required career information site for students.
Industries
- Visit the Virginia Economic Development Partnership website to learn more about Virginia’s key industries.
- View Virginia Economic Development regional profiles, which include employment by sector, employment by occupation, major employers, estimated earnings, and other important economic and demographic data for each region.
- Learn about local industry news through the Virginia Economic Development Partnership site.
- Virginia’s Economy at a Glance: Take a look at this Bureau of Labor Statistics page for quick tables and graphs of employment in Virginia’s major industries.
Nontraditional Courses and Students
Full details about nontraditional CTE courses are available in Appendices A-I of the CTERS User’s Manual. If your division is having trouble meeting goals for nontraditional completers, it is important to understand how nontraditional course feed into completer sequences, so that you can help nontraditional students return for a second qualifying course and thus become a nontraditional completer. Information on program sequences is available in the Administrative Planning Guide.
Occupations in Green Economy
Download projection data for occupations that may be a part of the Green Economy in Virginia here.
Child Labor Laws
View a side-by-side comparison of state and federal child labor laws for youth work-based learning in Virginia.
Other Data Resources
For those who like to look things up themselves, here are some of the most valuable data resources for Virginia.
- Community Profiles for every Virginia locality include a list of its 50 largest employers as well as data on population, commuting patterns, unemployment rates, educational attainment, and almost every other detail that you might want to know about your community.
- Quick Facts from the Census Bureau: Want more detail on your community? Census Quick Facts will tell you more than you can imagine, from the median value of owner-occupied homes, to the percent speaking a language other than English at home.
- Business Finder: Helps you find employers in different industry and occupation sectors in your locality. May provide leads for those looking for employers partners or co-op participants.