8 Uncommon STEM Careers To Help You Better Understand STEM Education

If you're a career and technical education (CTE) educator in Texas, you know the pressure is on to prepare students for life after high school. The Texas Education Agency's College, Career, and Military Readiness (CCMR) accountability system has changed how we measure success, and districts across the state are working hard to boost their CCMR ratings. Our Web Design, Web Animation, and Web and Mobile App Development courses offer a proven pathway to help your students meet CCMR requirements while building real-world skills that employers actually want. The Power of Industry-Based Certifications Industry-based certifications (IBCs) carry significant weight in today's job market because they demonstrate that students have mastered specific, job-ready skills. Unlike traditional assessments that test memorization, IBCs validate that students can actually perform the tasks required in professional settings. Employers recognize these credentials because the certification standards are developed by industry professionals—many of whom are responsible for hiring at their own companies. The courses we will discuss in this article offer certification pathways from our association partner Web Professionals Global —the professional association for internet professionals across industries. For Texas schools, IBCs offer a practical, accessible pathway to CCMR success. Not every student is college-bound, and not every student thrives in dual credit courses or standardized testing environments. IBCs provide an alternative route that respects diverse learning styles and career goals while still meeting rigorous state standards. Additionally, all of our courses include the opportunity to earn the Ethics in the Workplace micro-credential from Web Professionals Global. This is just another way every one of your students can grow their CCMR portfolio. Web Design Our Web Design course is listed on the Texas Education Agency's 2025-2030 Industry-Based Certification List for Public School Accountability. This TEKS-aligned curriculum prepares students to earn the Certified Web Designer Associate (CWDSA) credential. What makes this course particularly valuable is its comprehensive approach to career preparation. Students don't just learn HTML5 and CSS3—they develop critical STEM skills, build professional portfolios, and gain hands-on experience through project-based learning. Our curriculum is designed to be turnkey, meaning teachers can confidently deliver it even without prior web design experience. This addresses one of the biggest challenges facing CTE programs: finding qualified instructors for rapidly evolving technical fields. The Web Design course uses a media-rich, highly interactive format with over 120 tutorial videos that guide students through coding HTML5 and CSS3. Expert videos provide additional coaching on broader web development concepts. Students work on real projects they can showcase to colleges and employers, building confidence as they create actual websites from scratch. Like the other courses mentioned in this article, the Web Design course works seamlessly across PC, Mac, and Chromebook devices, making implementation straightforward regardless of your technology setup. Web Animation Our Web Animation course represents another powerful CCMR opportunity for Texas schools. Listed as Web Animation IBC 967 on TEA's approved certification list, this course prepares students for the Certified Web Animator Associate (CWAA) credential from Web Professionals Global. With the global animation market projected to reach over $587 billion by 2030, this pathway offers students access to a booming industry with competitive salaries and diverse career opportunities. Animation careers extend far beyond entertainment. Today's animators work in gaming, digital marketing, education, healthcare, and corporate communications. The skills students develop—visual storytelling, technical proficiency with industry-standard tools, project management, and collaboration—transfer across multiple high-demand fields. The Web Animation curriculum takes students through the fundamentals, including the 12 Principles of Animation developed by Disney, ensuring they understand the theoretical foundations of professional animation work. Students learn both 2D animation using Weditor (a free web-based creative suite) or Adobe Animate, and 3D animation concepts using tools like Adobe After Effects. Our Virtual Internship Model engages students with interactive, story-based projects that simulate real-world career experiences. This approach helps them develop not just technical skills but also the soft skills—communication, problem-solving, time management—that employers consistently cite as critical for workplace success. Each student builds a college and career-ready portfolio throughout the course, ensuring they have tangible evidence of their capabilities when they graduate. Web and Mobile App Development Our Web and Mobile App Development course offers another opportunity for students. Listed as code 966 on the TEA approved certification list, the course prepares students to earn the Certified Web and Mobile App Developer Apprentice (CWMA) credential through Web Professionals Global. The course uses a media-rich, highly interactive, hands-on approach to guide students through the exciting process of creating their own web or mobile apps using JavaScript. Students build actual working applications they can demonstrate to colleges, employers, or even publish in app stores. Throughout the coursework, students develop critical STEM skills, build confidence through successful project completion, and create a college and career-ready portfolio that showcases their abilities. Students experience everything from environment configuration and design through implementation, debugging, and deployment of web and mobile applications. They learn JavaScript programming fundamentals, understand the design process and web application life cycles, and gain practical experience with user interface and user experience concepts. Our curriculum weaves together technical skills with essential professional competencies like project management, ethics in the workplace, legal issues around intellectual property, and even entrepreneurship basics for students interested in starting their own development ventures. Why We Work Well with Texas CCMR Programs Several factors make our courses particularly well-suited for Texas districts working to improve CCMR outcomes: Alignment with State Standards : All three courses are TEKS-aligned and approved by TEA for the 2025-2030 certification list. This removes uncertainty about whether students will receive CCMR credit for their work. You can implement these courses with confidence that they meet state requirements. Accessibility for All Students : The turnkey design means you don't need specialized faculty or expensive equipment. Students and teachers can start with no prior experience in web design, animation or mobile app development. This democratizes access to high-quality CTE pathways, allowing more students to benefit regardless of your campus's resources or location. Portfolio Development : Both courses emphasize building professional portfolios. Students create projects they can show to college admissions offices, potential employers, or use as the foundation for freelance work. This practical output reinforces learning and provides students with immediate value beyond the certification itself. Industry Recognition : The certifications from Web Professionals Global carry weight because they're developed and recognized by actual industry professionals. Students aren't just earning a piece of paper—they're demonstrating competencies that employers actively seek. Bonus Industry Recognized Micro-Credentials: Boost student CCMR with additional micro-credentials in soft skills companies are looking for. Flexibility in Delivery : The courses work across multiple devices and support both blended learning and fully online instruction. This flexibility proved invaluable during recent years and continues to benefit schools serving students with diverse needs and schedules. Competition Opportunities : We partner with SkillsUSA, providing students opportunities to compete at regional, state, and national levels in Web Design and Development competitions. These experiences build confidence, create memorable milestones, and add impressive credentials to college applications. The Financial Impact on Your District Under House Bill 3, TEA awards CCMR Outcomes Bonus funding to districts based on the number of graduates who demonstrate college, career, or military readiness above certain thresholds. These bonuses apply to three cohorts: economically disadvantaged students, non-economically disadvantaged students, and special education students. By expanding access to industry-based certifications through our courses, you increase the number of students who meet CCMR indicators. This directly impacts your district's funding allocation while simultaneously improving your accountability ratings. It's a win-win situation where doing right by students also benefits your campus financially. Moreover, the relatively low barrier to implementation means you can scale these programs efficiently. You're not building expensive facilities or hiring highly specialized staff. You're providing students with internet-connected devices they likely already have and curriculum that's ready to deploy. Preparing Students for Multiple Pathways One of the most valuable aspects of our courses is how they serve students pursuing different post-secondary paths. For college-bound students, the certifications enhance applications and demonstrate initiative in developing technical skills. The portfolios provide concrete examples of their work during admissions interviews. Some universities even grant credit for industry certifications. For students entering the workforce directly after graduation, the certifications provide immediate employability credentials. Web designers and animators can find entry-level positions or start freelancing while continuing their education part-time. The skills are in demand across industries, not just in traditional tech companies. For students considering military service, the technical competencies developed through these courses align well with many military occupational specialties in communications, intelligence, and technical fields. Implementation Support and Professional Development We understand that adopting new curriculum can feel daunting, which is why we provide comprehensive support throughout implementation. When you reach out for a demo, you're not just seeing a product presentation—you're beginning a partnership with a team committed to your success. We offer professional development for teachers, ensuring you feel confident delivering the material even if you're new to web design, animation or mobile app development. Our curriculum includes detailed instructor guides, and the platform itself provides scaffolded support for students, reducing the instructional burden while maintaining high-quality learning experiences.  Technical support is readily available when you need it, and we actively work with partner schools to gather feedback and continuously improve our offerings. This responsive approach means your voice matters and your students benefit from ongoing enhancements. Looking Toward the Future The world of work continues to evolve rapidly, with digital skills becoming essential across virtually every industry. Web design, animation and mobile app development aren't just creative pursuits—they're fundamental communications tools in our increasingly digital economy. By offering these pathways now, you're positioning your students to adapt and thrive regardless of how their career interests develop. The skills students learn extend beyond the specific technical knowledge. They develop computational thinking, creative problem-solving, the ability to receive and implement feedback, and persistence through challenging projects. These meta-skills serve students well in any field they ultimately pursue. As artificial intelligence and automation reshape many traditional jobs, the creative and technical synthesis required in web design and animation becomes more valuable, not less. Students learn to work alongside technology, leveraging tools to amplify their creative vision—exactly the kind of human-machine collaboration that defines modern work. Contact Us Today Ready to learn more about how our Web Design, Web Animation and Mobile App Development courses can enhance your CCMR program? Reach out to us at hello@ctelearning.com or 913-764-4272 to schedule your free demo and discover how you can help your Texas students earn industry-recognized certifications, build impressive portfolios, and meet CCMR requirements while developing skills that will serve them throughout their careers. Your students' futures are waiting—let's build them together.

In recent months, the team at CTeLearning has been hard at work revising our popular Ethics in the Workplace curriculum and certification. Designed in partnership with Web Professionals Global , the professional association for all web careers, this micro-credential is a valuable opportunity for students to build a well-rounded professional profile that combines technical skills and a professional portfolio with essential workplace ethics knowledge. The curriculum is designed with real-world application in mind, preparing students for the ethical challenges they'll face in professional environments. We ensure learners are well-prepared to navigate both the technical and professional aspects of modern workplaces, making them more attractive candidates to employers who value both competency and integrity. Students who work through the curriculum earn the certification after completing all required coursework. Warren Buffett has stated that he looks for three qualities when hiring: integrity, intelligence, and energy. He noted that without integrity, the other two traits "will kill you," underscoring the foundational importance of ethical behavior. Let’s take a look at the Ethics in the Workplace certification and the key changes we have made for 2025-2026. Background on the Certification Over a decade ago, we developed the first version of the Ethics in the Workplace curriculum. This came after years of our teachers struggling with teaching ethics in their classrooms. Since everything we do is wrapped up in the context of a career experience, we knew that we could deliver ethics in a practical and direct manner. We decided to dive even deeper into this idea when two new hires straight out of college came to work for us. No need to go into detail, but let’s just say we saw firsthand what happens when you have people who you assume understand the basics of ethical behavior. I (Steve) can still remember the conversation when my head of development came into my office and sat down with me to tell me a story of what she had discovered. In short, we had to fire the new employees and clean up the mess they left. However, this gave us the extra boost to develop our first ethics module. This internal training became the basis for what we dropped into every career pathway course we delivered to teachers and students. A few years later, we partnered with Web Professionals Global to have this micro-credential endorsed, and the rest is history. New Features for 2025-2026 As all our clients know, we are constantly updating our content. All areas of career and technical education (CTE) are always changing, so we keep adapting as part of our commitment to our teachers. In recent years, we had conversations with teachers who do not teach CTE pathways like web design, web game design, or animation but still wanted to teach ethics to their students. They asked us to deliver the Ethics in the Workplace certification as a standalone course, which makes sense considering it is important to be ethical in the workplace across all career pathways. As a result, our course can now be utilized in any class. It is designed to work with PC, Mac and Chromebooks. It is incredibly easy to facilitate with plenty of touch points teachers may choose to use to expand the learning experience and customize it to suit their students’ needs. AI has dramatically affected ethics in professional settings, and our most recent version includes a new section to teach students about the reality of AI and its use in the workplace. This topic also is good for students to understand as the same ethical approach to using AI in the workplace should be applied to using AI as it relates to school. We also revamped the certification so that it is now available to schools in Spanish as well as English. This allows our schools to reach more learners and integrate the curriculum into English as a Second Language (ESL) and English Language Learner (ELL) programs. Teachers and students can easily switch back and forth between English and Spanish. In the future, based on needs and requests, we will add other languages to the list. Get Started Today Ethics should be a part of every school experience. Students who work through the course and earn the certification are better prepared than peers to work in professional environments in an ethical manner. Imagine your learners being able to take home their certifications and show their family what might be their first industry-based certificate. We see this as another path to building a student's workplace confidence in addition to the technical skills and other soft skills our courses teach. For more information about the certification or any of our other courses , contact us today at 913-764-4272 or hello@ctelearning.com . We would be happy to give you a 30-minute demo of any of our courses and show how we can help your school meet STEM education goals.