The Connecting Small Businesses with Career and Technical Education Graduates Act of 2025 amends the Small Business Act to add a statutory definition of “career and technical education” (by reference to the Carl D. Perkins Act) and impose new programmatic duties on Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) and Women’s Business Centers (WBCs).
The amendments require SBDCs and WBCs to provide educational information to small businesses about hiring CTE graduates and relevant CTE programs; to inform CTE programs about how their students and graduates can access SBDC/WBC resources; and, where appropriate, to connect businesses with CTE programs to help students and graduates identify career opportunities.
The changes create a formal federal expectation that SBA-funded counseling networks act as intermediaries between local employers and CTE pipelines. The bill does not appropriate new funds, set performance metrics, or create enforcement penalties — which leaves implementation choices, operational costs, and accountability mechanisms to SBA guidance and local centers.
Compliance officers and program directors will need to translate these broad duties into concrete outreach, referral, and data-sharing practices.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill adds a new statutory definition of “career and technical education” (matching the Perkins Act) and amends two parts of the Small Business Act. It directs SBDCs to add three specific functions—educating businesses on hiring CTE graduates, informing CTE programs about SBDC services, and connecting businesses and CTE programs—and imposes parallel duties on WBCs focused on women-owned firms.
Who It Affects
SBA-funded Small Business Development Centers and Women’s Business Centers are directly affected, as are community colleges and secondary CTE programs that qualify under the Perkins definition. Small businesses—particularly those with technical hiring needs and women-owned firms—stand to be served, and CTE students and recent graduates are intended beneficiaries.
Why It Matters
The bill formalizes workforce-pipeline duties for SBA networks, turning counseling centers into active intermediaries in local hiring markets. That can shorten recruitment pipelines for technical roles, but it also forces centers to add outreach, partnership-building, and possibly referral-tracking without guaranteed new funding or standardized metrics.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The Act inserts a specific definition of career and technical education into the Small Business Act by referencing the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.
That cross-reference means the federal network will use the Perkins statutory definition to identify which programs, students, and credentials count as CTE for purposes of the new duties. This avoids the need for a separate federal definition but ties implementation to how Perkins-eligible programs are identified and administered.
For Small Business Development Centers, the bill amends the statutory list of SBDC functions to add three discrete responsibilities. First, SBDCs must provide educational materials and guidance to small businesses on hiring graduates of CTE programs and on which CTE programs align with specific business needs.
Second, SBDCs must proactively inform CTE programs about how students and graduates can use SBDC services to start or grow businesses. Third, SBDCs must connect small businesses with CTE programs, as appropriate, to help students and graduates identify career paths.
The statute achieves these duties by adding new subparagraphs to the existing program functions; it does not specify how to carry them out, how often, or what resources must be devoted.The Women’s Business Centers section mirrors the SBDC language but frames it around small business concerns owned and controlled by women. WBCs must educate women-owned businesses on hiring CTE graduates and using CTE programs to fill hiring needs, provide CTE programs information about WBC services, and connect women-owned firms with CTE programs to help students and graduates explore careers.
Like the SBDC changes, the WBC amendments do not attach funding, reporting requirements, or enforcement mechanisms; they add program tasks that centers will need to operationalize within existing cooperative agreements and grants.Taken together, the bill expects SBA’s counseling networks to function as connectors between local education providers and employers. That will likely require updates to outreach materials, staff training on CTE pathways, development of memoranda of understanding with community colleges and secondary schools, and informal or formal referral-tracking systems.
The law leaves key program design choices—scope of “connections,” data-sharing practices, and performance measures—to SBA guidance and local implementation decisions.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill adds a new subsection (gg) to Section 3 of the Small Business Act that defines “career and technical education” by referencing the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006.
It amends Section 21(c)(3) (Small Business Development Centers) to add three new duties: educate businesses on hiring CTE graduates, inform CTE programs about SBDC resources, and connect businesses with CTE programs.
It amends Section 29(b) (Women’s Business Centers) to require comparable activities targeted to small business concerns owned and controlled by women, adding three new paragraphs (4)–(6).
The statutory language uses the phrase “as appropriate” for the obligation to connect businesses with CTE programs, leaving discretion to centers and SBA about when and how to make connections.
The bill does not include new appropriations, specific performance metrics, reporting requirements, or penalties for noncompliance, so implementation depends on SBA guidance and existing cooperative agreements.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
Provides the Act’s name: Connecting Small Businesses with Career and Technical Education Graduates Act of 2025. Practically, this is the bill’s label for citations and has no programmatic effect, but it signals Congress’s intent to treat workforce linkages as a formal objective of SBA counseling networks.
Adds a CTE definition via Perkins Act reference
Inserts a new subsection (gg) into Section 3 of the Small Business Act that defines “career and technical education” by reference to the Carl D. Perkins Act (20 U.S.C. 2302). That means the universe of covered programs and students is determined by existing Perkins eligibility rules, not by new SBA criteria—streamlining alignment but also importing Perkins’ scope and limitations into SBA practice.
New SBDC duties: education, outreach, and connections
Amends Section 21(c)(3) to add three subparagraphs (W), (X), and (Y). Subparagraph (W) requires SBDCs to provide educational information to small businesses about hiring CTE graduates and identifying relevant CTE programs. Subparagraph (X) requires SBDCs to inform CTE programs about how their students and graduates can access SBDC resources. Subparagraph (Y) directs SBDCs to connect businesses with CTE programs 'as appropriate' to help students and graduates identify career opportunities. The statutory changes are prescriptive about topics but leave methodology—workshops, referral lists, MOUs, direct placement assistance—to SBA and local centers.
Parallel requirements for Women’s Business Centers
Modifies Section 29(b) to add paragraphs (4)–(6), imposing tasks on WBCs that mirror the SBDC duties but target small business concerns owned and controlled by women. WBCs must educate women-owned firms about hiring CTE graduates and CTE programs, inform CTE programs about WBC services, and connect women-owned firms with CTE programs when appropriate, emphasizing gender-specific outreach and supports.
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Who Benefits
- Small businesses with technical staffing needs — the bill directs SBDCs and WBCs to identify CTE programs and grads for hiring, potentially shortening recruitment cycles and improving access to job-ready candidates.
- Women-owned small businesses — WBCs get explicit authority to match women-owned concerns with CTE talent and resources, which can help fill technical roles in firms that historically face hiring barriers.
- CTE programs and students/graduates — the statute creates another formal referral channel from federal small-business networks, increasing student exposure to local employers and entrepreneurship resources.
- Community colleges and secondary CTE providers — centers are expected to coordinate with these institutions, creating partnership opportunities and clearer pathways from training to employment.
- SBDCs/WBCs seeking to demonstrate local impact — the new duties offer these centers a concrete way to claim workforce-development outcomes when reporting to funders or partner organizations.
Who Bears the Cost
- Small Business Development Centers — SBDCs must add outreach, materials, staff training, and partner coordination to their workloads, absorbing these costs unless SBA supplies additional funding or grants.
- Women’s Business Centers — WBCs face similar operational costs to implement targeted hiring outreach and partnerships with CTE programs, potentially stretching already-limited grant budgets.
- SBA (program oversight) — the agency will need to update guidance, cooperative agreements, and monitoring tools to reflect the new duties, which creates administrative burden even without new appropriations.
- CTE programs and institutions — colleges and secondary providers may need to allocate staff time for coordination, employer engagement, and potential referral tracking, with no guaranteed funding from this bill.
- Privacy/compliance officers at schools and centers — connecting students and employers will raise questions about FERPA, consent, and data-sharing agreements that institutions must address, adding legal and administrative costs.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill balances two legitimate goals—deepening the workforce pipeline for small businesses and preserving the broad counseling mission and limited budgets of SBDCs and WBCs—but it does so without funding or clear performance rules. That creates a trade-off between pushing centers to deliver measurable employer-education linkages and risking mission drift, uneven service levels, and administrative strain where resources are thin.
The bill prescribes topics and relationships but leaves execution largely undefined. It references the Perkins Act to define CTE, which simplifies eligibility questions but also locks implementation to Perkins’ administrative boundaries—state plans, approved programs, and federal-state variations.
The statutory duty to 'provide information' and 'connect' creates expectations without specifying delivery modes, frequency, or success metrics. That gap will push implementers to choose among workshops, digital directories, formal MOUs, or informal introductions, each with different cost and compliance profiles.
A core practical challenge is funding and capacity. The statute does not appropriate new money or require reporting, so centers must absorb new responsibilities within existing cooperative agreements and grants unless SBA or Congress acts later.
That raises the risk of uneven implementation: better-resourced centers and regions could build robust employer-education partnerships, while smaller or rural centers may only offer basic informational materials. Finally, the Act raises data and privacy issues—linking students/graduates to employers requires careful adherence to FERPA and consent practices, and the phrase 'as appropriate' gives centers discretion but creates legal ambiguity about what kinds of introductions or referrals are permissible without explicit student consent.
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