I ran our AZ CTE software for a year. Here’s my honest take.

I’m Kayla. I run CTE in Arizona. Welding. Culinary. Early childhood. The whole noisy, happy mess. I used this AZ CTE software all last school year. I clicked every button. I broke a few things. I fixed a lot more. Here’s what actually happened.
If you're skimming and just want the executive summary, I also published a cleaned-up version of this journey on the QuSoft blog—you can find it in my piece titled I ran our AZ CTE software for a year. Here’s my honest take.

Setup wasn’t scary, just… fussy

We pulled rosters from Synergy. A quick CSV import worked in about 15 minutes. Then I hit a snag. About 36 kids had AzEDS IDs that didn’t match. I felt my stomach drop. Support emailed back in under an hour. We cleaned it up with a batch match tool. Wednesday. 4:12 p.m. I remember because I had cold coffee in my hand.

I also loaded our programs by CIP code. Welding 48.0508. Culinary 12.0500. Early Childhood 19.0709. The system had templates for Arizona standards. I tweaked a few lines, like our OSHA-10 requirement in Welding 1. Not hard. Just careful work.

Daily use: real stuff I did

Tracked 142 welding students. 38 earned OSHA-10. 12 passed NCCER Core. I scanned cards with my phone in the lab. The upload tagged each kid and the date. Pretty slick.
Logged work-based learning hours. Seniors in Auto stacked 2,840 hours at shops by spring break. The app used a QR sign-in at the school gate. Yes, a few kids tried to sign from home. The GPS check caught them.
Marked concentrators and completers. The tool used our course history. I still reviewed each one. I don’t trust any system on that part. Not fully.
Ran Perkins reports. I pulled concentrator counts for Perkins V. It was ready in CSV and PDF. No fancy dance. Just a click, then download.

You know what? The AzEDS sync saved me a Saturday. We had a tiny roster shift the night before the 100th day. It synced at 6:05 a.m. Data fixed. No drama.

What I loved (and told my team)

AzEDS tie-in. Less double entry. Fewer typos.
Certification tracker. OSHA-10, NCCER, ServSafe, Adobe, ASE, NHA. The list was built in. I added CareerSafe as a custom type. Worked fine.
Program of Study maps. It showed the pathway. It also showed gaps. We used it when we pitched a new Sports Med 51.0000 course to our JTED partner.
Simple exports. CSV for me. Pretty PDFs for board folks.
Inventory barcodes. We tagged 63 welding helmets and 4 CNC machines. Check-in/out made loss go way down. Kids return gear when they know it’s “on record.”

Small thing, but real: It prints clean labels. No fuzzy barcodes. My custodian smiled. He never smiles.

What bugged me (and still does)

Too many clicks to edit one student. I want “open, fix, save.” Not “open, confirm, scroll, confirm, save.” It felt like the change-approval gates I ran into while piloting management of change software last spring—great for safety audits, but overkill when I’m just fixing a kid’s middle initial.
Slow on student Chromebooks. Teacher view was fine. Kids on old devices waited 4 to 6 seconds per page.
The app camera tool hated low light. Our welding lab is dim by design. I had to step by the bay door to scan certs.
Completer rules were hard to find. Arizona rules are clear. The settings were not. I made a cheat sheet for my team.
Help docs felt dated. The screen shots didn’t match the new UI. Support was good. But the docs lagged.

A quick detour: donuts and deadlines

We had a SkillsUSA donut sale the same week as Perkins numbers were due. Phoenix was 108 degrees. The glaze melted. My patience also melted. The report builder worked anyway. I clicked “Concentrator Count by Program.” Numbers matched what I had on paper. I breathed again, ate a ruined donut, and moved on.

Teacher examples that saved time

Culinary 2: I bulk added ServSafe exam dates for 57 kids. It printed seat slips with names. No mix-ups at testing.
Auto: We logged ASE Entry-Level completions. The dashboard showed who still needed Electrical. We slotted kids for a Saturday prep using iCEV videos.
Early Childhood: Work site hours needed notes. We added a “supervisor phone” field. Fixed two attendance disputes fast.
Graphics: Adobe badges pulled from a spreadsheet. Names with accents didn’t break the import. Thank you, whoever tested that.
Science Lab: During a pilot, we pushed incident tracking through a lab QMS software module—having SOPs pop right in the interface cut prep time for our bio tech class.

Reports that mattered to me

Fall CTE Enrollment by CIP and grade. Good for our board packet.
Perkins concentrators by subgroup. Yes, it’s a mouthful. But it’s key. The chart was clear.
Credential count by program and term. We used it for our JTED renewal with West-MEC.
Work-based learning hours by site. Clean list. Addresses included. I love addresses.

Tips I wish someone told me

Clean SSIDs before you import. One wrong digit will haunt you.
Tag courses by term (F23, S24). Filtering later gets easy.
Set certification “windows.” Kids race to finish when a date stares at them.
Block 30 minutes on Fridays. Run the “errors and warnings” report. Fix it before it snowballs.
Before you commit, check out the comprehensive implementation timeline at QuSoft; it saved me from skipping two critical data-mapping steps.

Who it fits

District CTE directors with 5+ programs. You’ll feel the gains fast.
JTED partners who share data with home schools. The role setup handles that, mostly.
Single-program schools? It may feel heavy. It still works. But a lighter tool might do.

Support and training

Email replies came fast. Phone hold was short. They offered a short Zoom for my new welding teacher. She asked two million questions. They stayed kind. That matters. For folks who like real-time, peer-to-peer troubleshooting, swing by the InstantChat BBW lounge where CTE coordinators trade quick fixes, upload sample import files, and crowd-solve data headaches faster than most vendor help desks.

That jump-in, jump-out cadence feels a lot like professional speed-networking. If you ever want to study how tight timing and clear rules can spark productive matches—and maybe meet a few interesting people while you’re at it—check out the structured mixers at Speed Dating Aventura where the hosts run the evening with stopwatch precision and plenty of take-home tips for keeping conversations brisk.

Wish list (please and thank you)

Dark mode for labs. My eyes beg you.
Fewer clicks on student edits.
Better mobile scanning in low light.
Live tool tips for Arizona completer rules.

The bottom line

It’s not perfect. It saved me hours. It kept our data clean. Kids got credit for real work. I’d keep using it next year. I already put it in my budget note, right under gloves and gas for the torches.

If you’re in Arizona CTE, this software won’t carry your whole program. But it won’t get in your way either. Most days, it helps. And on deadline days, it’s a life raft.