Career and Life Skills Education
Career and Life Skills Education
Career Clusters
Washington State has adopted Career Clusters as a tool for seamless transition from education to career. Career Clusters are broad groupings of careers that have similar characteristics and employment requirements. They provide a useful framework to aid students in career exploration and can help students focus on programs of study based on personal interests. Research has demonstrated that students who have a focus in a curricula area in high school have generally higher grades.
Students who have a career focus will continue their education beyond high school and understand why post-secondary education is necessary. Post-secondary education includes community and technical colleges, apprenticeship programs, the military and 4-year universities.
The 16 Career Clusters are:
- Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources
- Architecture & Construction
- Arts, A/V Technology & Communications
- Business, Management & Administration
- Education & Training
- Finance
- Government & Public Administration
- Health Science
- Hospitality & Tourism
- Human Services
- Information Technology
- Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security
- Manufacturing
- Marketing
- Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
- Transportation, Distribution & Logistics
All courses in the Career and Life Skills Education Department will satisfy the Washington State graduation requirement for occupational education. In addition, some courses are identifed in the list below as "cross-credit." This means that students taking those courses can apply credit towards a different area of requirement such as math or art. Click here for a High School Planner that can help students keep track of graduation requirements progress. Many of the Career and Life skills education courses are eligible for college credit. Please see the College/Tech Prep Credits page for more information. Click on the 
buttons below for individual Program Fact Sheets that include recommended classes, and employment outlook information. Or, access the same information in booklet form.
CROSS-CREDIT COLLEGE CREDIT Design Fine Arts Fine Arts Multimedia Fine Arts Fine Arts Fine Arts Fine Arts Yes Web Site Design 1-2 Fine Arts Yes Yearbook 1-4 Fine Arts Yes CROSS-CREDIT COLLEGE CREDIT Yes Business Communications/Applied Communications Language Arts Consumer Competency Yes Economics - AP Macro & Micro Yes Fashion Marketing & Merchandising Yes Information Technology - Honors Yes Information Technology - Advanced Yes Journalistic Writing 1-2 Language Arts Yes Marketing - Advanced Yes Consumer Competency Yes Marketing Seminar 1-2 Yes Project Management Recordkeeping Sports & Entertainment Marketing CROSS-CREDIT COLLEGE CREDIT World Languages Yes Anatomy & Physiology Science Yes Yes Yes Exercise Science 1-2 Health & Fitness Yes Health Health Requirement Health Sciences Career Exploration Health & Fitness Health & Fitness Health Sciences/Advanced Sports Med 1-2 Health & Fitness Yes Human Development Yes Independent Living Consumer Competency Leadership 1-2 Musculoskeletal Anatomy Science Yes Parenting Personal Fitness Health & Fitness CROSS-CREDIT COLLEGE CREDIT Environmental Science 1-2 Science CROSS-CREDIT COLLEGE CREDIT Yes Fine Arts (3-4) Yes Computer Technologies 1-8 Yes Material Science Technology 1-2 Science Power Mechanics 1-2 Science Yes Robotics 1-4 Science Yes CROSS-CREDIT COLLEGE CREDIT Applied Mathematics 1-4 Mathematics Career Choices 1-2 Consumer Competency Careers in the Community Worksite Learning
Arts & Communications RETURN TO TOP
Business and Marketing RETURN TO TOP
Health & Human Services RETURN TO TOP
Science & Natural Resources RETURN TO TOP
Technology & Engineering RETURN TO TOP
Course flyer
All Clusters RETURN TO TOP