The Dedicated Student Information System for Technical & Vocational Academies
Eliminate generic SIS workarounds. Ctesis delivers precision clock-hour tracking, seat-time auditing, CIP pathway progress, pluggable jurisdiction packs, and statutory state and federal compliance in one unified, modern platform.
Designed for Vocational Precision
Take a guided walkthrough across 22 focused workspaces spanning all 11 Ctesis modules. Each view advances every 10 seconds, or pause and explore directly at your own pace.
Engineered Specifically for Technical Education
Traditional SIS software was built for credit hours and semester GPAs. Ctesis solves the distinct operational and regulatory challenges of vocational institutions.
Automated Clock-Hour & Seat-Time Auditing
Accurately record and audit seat-time hours across lecture, clinical, and laboratory sessions required for trade licensure boards, COE accreditation, and Workforce Pell eligibility screening.
Perkins V & State Compliance Reporting
Track special populations, participant and concentrator progression, and nontraditional career enrollment. Run automated statutory federal reports (IPEDS, COE) and pluggable state jurisdiction pack exports.
Stackable Credentials & Pathway Planning
Map mini-certificates, industry certifications (OSHA, ASE, CompTIA, AWS, NIMS), licenses and degrees into stackable pathways with alternative entry routes. An interactive planner shows each student's shortest route, remaining courses, OJT hours and exams, with what-if scenarios and Workforce Pell clock-hour screening.
CIP Code & Career Pathways
Map curricula to federal Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) codes, career cluster frameworks, and track student transition into high-demand regional jobs.
Competency-Based Skill Rubrics
Replace generic multiple-choice grades with trade skill rubrics. Instructors assess hands-on laboratory proficiencies, practical tasks, and workshop safety compliance.
Pluggable Packs & Sovereign Deployment
Select your state rules with zero-bloat jurisdiction packs. Deploy on your terms with dedicated single-tenant hosting or self-hosted private servers, retaining full data sovereignty and direct SQL query access.
Verifiable Digital Credentials
Issue tamper-evident Open Badges 3.0 / W3C Verifiable Credentials that employers verify instantly on a public page, with immediate revocation and Comprehensive Learner Record export. Your institution controls its own signing keys and issuer identity, and can adopt a state-selected issuing platform later without changing its records.
Work-Based Learning & OJT Hours
Manage employer partners, placements, hour targets and wage steps. Supervisors confirm hours through secure one-time links without creating an account, and employer timesheets import in bulk. Verified hours feed credential requirements and state readiness measures that combine college credit, industry credentials and work-based learning.
The Story Behind Ctesis
More than an acronym: a deliberate philosophical contrast between ponderous legacy bloat and agile vocational software.
ctesis
[ suh-TEE-sis ] /səˈtiː.sɪs/ nounThe Ponderous Whale
Traditional legacy enterprise student information systems were constructed decades ago to serve massive four-year university campuses and general K-12 school districts.
Over the years, they accumulated massive bureaucratic bloat. Like large baleen whales, they are massive and ponderous: extraordinarily slow to turn, burdened by legacy code, and completely unsuited for fast-moving technical programs.
When vocational schools need to log seat-time hours down to the minute or export Perkins V concentrator files, these legacy giants require costly third-party consultants and months of custom patching.
- Massive, slow-moving legacy codebases
- Heavy administrative bloat and high overhead
- Struggling to support vocational clock-hour tracking
The Nimble Orca
Within the cetacean family, the orca represents the pinnacle of speed, strategic intelligence, precision, and agility. It moves swiftly, navigates complex currents with ease, and operates with purposeful coordination.
Ctesis was engineered in that exact spirit. We eliminated the bloated, unnecessary baggage of standard higher-education and general K-12 systems to build a lean, lightning-fast platform focused exclusively on CTE.
From automated clock-hour timecards to one-click Perkins V state reporting and competency-based skill rubrics, Ctesis gives vocational leaders a nimble system that turns on a dime.
- Fast, modern, and purposeful architecture
- Zero bloat: 100% focused on CTE workflows
- Nimble clock-hour verification and instant audits
Pluggable Jurisdiction Packs: Native Rules, Zero Bloat
We configure dedicated single-tenant environments with modular state packs instead of forcing your institution into a bloated, one-size-fits-all monolith or fragile custom forks.
State-Native Compliance via Jurisdiction Packs
Every state board enforces distinct statutory rules, residency guidelines, concurrent enrollment policies, and workforce reporting layouts. Rather than cluttering the core application with fragile feature flags or divergent code forks, Ctesis encapsulates state rules inside modular, pluggable jurisdiction packs. Your institution's state models compile directly and cleanly into the binary.
Jurisdiction-Neutral Core with Seamless Upgrades
The core platform remains lean, high-performance, and strictly neutral. When upstream security patches, performance improvements, and federal updates ship, your system upgrades cleanly without risking regressions in your state-specific reporting views, funding models, or graduation criteria.
True Institutional Sovereignty & Dedicated Instances
Generic multi-tenant platforms commingle your student records in a shared database subject to unpredictable vendor changes. Ctesis delivers dedicated single-tenant deployments (self-hosted or private cloud). You maintain 100% data sovereignty, direct SQL query access, and complete control over your institutional records.
Generic SIS vs. Ctesis Dedicated SIS
Why institutions replace traditional K-12 and university software with a system purpose-built for vocational education.
Generic Higher Ed / K-12 SIS
- × Forces semester credit calculations on non-credit clock-hour vocational programs.
- × No native tracking for state licensing board seat-time or clinical laboratory hour logs.
- × Requires expensive custom engineering for Perkins V concentrator logic and state compliance reports.
- × Cannot manage CTE workshop equipment, bays, or specialized trade lab station bookings.
- × Locks data behind proprietary APIs without direct query access for state compliance auditors.
- × Treats industry certifications as free-text notes, with no stackable pathways or verifiable digital credentials.
- × Relies on paper or emailed timesheets to verify employer on-the-job training hours.
- × Lacks dedicated partner portals for apprenticeship sponsors and dual-enrollment school districts.
Ctesis CTE-Dedicated Platform
- ✓ Native clock-hour accounting built into the core schema for state licensing boards and Workforce Pell.
- ✓ Live seat-time and laboratory attendance verification with real-time deficit alerts.
- ✓ Automated Perkins V special population tracking and statutory state compliance exports via pluggable packs.
- ✓ Integrated technical lab, workshop bay, and instructor credential scheduling.
- ✓ Direct query builder and direct database access for effortless accreditation audits.
- ✓ Stackable credential pathways with a student pathway planner and signed, publicly verifiable Open Badges 3.0 credentials.
- ✓ Employer placements with one-time supervisor hour confirmation links and verified OJT ledgers.
- ✓ Dedicated Student and Partner Portals for apprenticeship sponsors and school districts with FERPA disclosure logs.