College & Career Ready

DECA has a tremendous impact on students' college and career choices. More than 70 percent of DECA members at the 2009 International Career Development Conference indicated that DECA has influenced their future career plans. Likewise, more than 65 percent indicated that DECA has influenced their future college plans.

To be prepared for both college and careers, DECA members are taking advantage of the new programs of study in Marketing, Business Administration, Finance, and Hospitality. DECA has worked closely with the National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education's (NASDCTE) Career Clusters Project and MBA Research to assist with the development of National Curriculum Standards and Career Cluster Programs of Study. Beginning in 2008, DECA undertook a significant multi-year effort to align our competitive events program with these career clusters, enabling teachers to better incorporate DECA into their curriculum and courses.

The Comprehensive Competitive Events Framework provides competitive events that:

• are appropriate for each instructional level
• utilize a variety of methods and models to measure the student's knowledge and skills
• teachers can use to improve teaching and learning
• may be used to document learning for state reporting purposes
• may be used to document advanced credit or other forms of college admissions requirement