We are approaching an important milestone in career and technical education: The Success Via Apprenticeship (SVA) program, which trains the CTE educators of the future, is celebrating its 40th year.

SVA — first established in 1984 as the Substitute Vocational Assistant program — was the brainchild of the UFT, the city Department of Education and City College leaders who predicted a looming shortage in CTE educators and saw a need to create a highly skilled pipeline of pedagogues in the field.

Every year since, several New York City public high school graduates of CTE programs are nominated by their teachers for the program, which combines CUNY college courses with mentorship in classrooms and apprenticeships in each student’s chosen industry to prepare them, over five years, to become certified educators in their chosen field.

Eventually rebranded as Success Via Apprenticeship, the program was unique at its founding, when partnerships between schools and industry leaders like IBM and Xerox were unheard of in the high school space.

Students obtain two years of classroom experience and three years of industry experience by the time they complete the program. That ingenious five-year structure allows apprentices the chance to grow as educators while staying up to date in the industry of their choice.

The students are paid 90% of a starting teacher’s salary and receive all the benefits of a teacher while enrolled.

With all its built-in support, SVA enjoys a retention rate and completion rate of over 90%, and its graduates are among our city’s strongest educational leaders.

I have had the privilege of witnessing the impact of the SVA program firsthand because I was a graduate of the program and began my own career as a CTE educator. SVA was the best thing that ever happened to me.

SVA is the reason New York City is far ahead of many school districts in the nation when it comes to CTE.

SVA-trained teachers not only bring the most innovative content into their classrooms but also can inform their school colleagues about new technology and new industry techniques.

The ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic perhaps provided the greatest example of the importance of career and technical education as a field of study. Our CTE graduates — such as plumbers, shippers, medical workers and those in food services — helped keep the world going.

The SVA program has been instrumental in addressing what was predicted by union and education leaders in the 1980s to be a critical shortage of CTE educators. By providing a pipeline of highly qualified and industry-experienced educators, we prevented a crisis in the vocational education system.

As we enter a time of impending retirements of a big cohort of skilled CTE educators, the SVA program needs our support more than ever.

As we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the SVA program, let’s keep the pipeline of highly qualified CTE educators flowing by ensuring the program receives the highest level of support and funding.