CDCR Unlocked: Podcast highlights CTE

February 20, 2025

The latest CDCR Unlocked podcast highlights the Career Technical Education (CTE) program through a conversation with Dr. Joseph Piazza.

In the Division of Rehabilitative Programs, Office of Correctional Education, Piazza oversees the CTE program.

CTE is provided through six career sectors:

building and construction
business and finance
information and communication technologies
fashion and interior design,
manufacturing and product development
and transportation.

In the CDCR Unlocked podcast, Piazza shares how CTE benefits more than just the participants and their loved ones, but society as a whole.

Listen to the podcast.

A conversation with Dr. Joseph Piazza, CTE state supervisor

“We have three goals in CTE. The first goal is helping people change their perspective about themselves and themselves in relation to other people. The second is we want people to develop employability skills because when we talk to employers on the outside, what they want most are nice people to get along with, who also are going to be great employees,” Piazza said.

“CTE pressure tests that. You have to be there early. It gets hot. It’s loud. There (are) social norms you have to follow. And so, all of these things that will ultimately lead, if they decide to go to retail, they’re still going to want those same factors. How do you communicate? Are you a problem solver? Our third priority is career discernment.”

CTE by the numbers

CTE in CDCR serves almost 13,000 students a year
CTE program is in 29 different sites
300 classrooms
21 different programs.

“The scale of what we’re doing here is much larger than what an adult school in a K-12 district might be. I feel that it’s been a growth opportunity for me professionally because I could see the result, and I had to go back and match it to the brain research to understand why we were having such great results,” he said. “Then (this) made me better at being in the administrative for CTE inside of CDCR, because now I can understand the cycle of this is the brain that we get to support, help.”

Podcast produced by CDCR’s Division of Rehabilitative Programs