The UFT and the American Federation of Teachers on June 11 announced a $500,000 initiative to expand career and technical education in five cities, including New York, based on a model pioneered here.

The AFT plans to create partnerships with school districts, community colleges, city governments and business groups to support the growth of CTE.

“It’s a no-brainer,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said about the program, called Promising Pathways in Career and Technical Education. “Our problem has been how to move it to a bigger place.”

Too often, Mulgrew said, the union and other advocates for CTE have approached elected officials, who say they support expanding the program but then take no action.

“We’re just going to start doing it,” he said during the standing-room-only news conference packed with reporters, educators and industry representatives.

Mayor Bill de Blasio was on hand to lend his support.

“If we’re going to address income inequality, we’re not going to do it with minimum-wage jobs,” de Blasio said. “We’re going to do it by getting more and more people into the middle class.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten explained the initiative’s focus on individual cities and expressed her hope that its success will allow the union to make the case for federal support.

“Cities are the engines of the economy; cities are the pulse of our country,” she said. “So cities are where we need to grow career and technical education.”

The four partner cities are Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Miami and Peoria, Illinois. The AFT’s local affiliates in each city will receive seed money from the national union’s Innovation Fund to expand CTE, using what’s been done in New York City as a model.

That model involves working closely with industry partners. The UFT’s newest initiative, National Industry Certification for Educators, or NICE, will provide educators with access to courses designed by industry partners so that they can earn industry credentials that meet established standards.

Four “boot camps” will launch this summer to certify 100 teachers in graphic arts, automotive technology, educational technology and information technology. Those teachers will then share what they learned with their colleagues in an effort to create a cadre of industry-trained instructors.

UFT Vice President for CTE High Schools Sterling Roberson and past Vice President Frank Carucci helped lay the groundwork for the program.

The focus in Peoria will be on manufacturing and health care, while in San Francisco the grant money will be used to train middle school teachers to teach computer science.

In Miami, the funds will be used to support a partnership with Miami College to prepare students to work in emerging technologies in health care and information systems.