Association For Career And Technical Education, Inc.

Association For Career And Technical Education, Inc., a tax-exempt nonprofit based in Alexandria, Virginia, operates as a prime contractor and grant sub-recipient providing exhibition booth space and event hosting services to the federal government, competing on full-and-open basis with no set-aside designations across its federal footprint. ACTE's federal role centers on conference and convention services rather than traditional goods or services delivery — the organization stages career and technical education conferences and expos that host federal agencies as exhibitors and provide dissemination platforms for workforce development initiatives.

ACTE's customer base is heavily concentrated within the Department of the Army. The top five funding entities account for 91% of recent awards, with the Department of the Army Headquarters Office of the Secretary anchoring $309 thousand across ten awards and the Department of the Army Headquarters Deputy Chief of Staff Personnel Army Recruiting Command adding $102 thousand across ten awards. The Army's consistent purchasing pattern reflects a multi-year strategy: between 2021 and 2026, ACTE received six consecutive purchase orders from the Army for booth space at its annual CareerTech Vision conferences, ranging from $25.5 thousand to $49.2 thousand per award. Recent examples include a $49.2 thousand purchase order for booth space at the 2024 CareerTech Vision convention in San Antonio (December 2024), a $34.65 thousand purchase order for two booth spaces at the 2025 annual conference in Nashville (December 2025), and a $25.5 thousand purchase order for booth space at the 2026 event (December 2026). Activity has remained relatively flat — two awards per year in 2022–2024, declining to one award in both 2025 and 2026 — with only one award ($25.5 thousand) facing ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months.

Beyond its prime contract work, ACTE acts as a sub-recipient on federal grant initiatives focused on career and technical education research and apprenticeship expansion. ACTE co-leads dissemination and leadership tasks under two research network sub-awards from the American Institutes For Research In The Behavioral Sciences (funded in December 2022 and February 2024), where it manages communications, field engagement, and knowledge translation connecting research findings to CTE practitioners. ACTE also serves as a sub-recipient under the American Association Of Community Colleges on an electric vehicle supply chain Registered Apprenticeship hub initiative (October 2023), coordinating community college engagement in the national EV workforce pipeline. The organization's combined federal footprint across prime contracts and grant sub-awards totals $440 thousand in potential value, with $425 thousand obligated to date.