A vocational-technical school, often called a vo-tech school, is a high school in the United States and Canada designed to bring vocational and technical training to its students. Such skills become highly valuable to students entering into a vocational or technical field without first obtaining higher education. Proponents claim that students bound for college may be able to use such skills to realize a distinct educational advantage over other students in their major.
Additionally, vocational-technical schools often provide training to adults from the surrounding communities. The training, offered for a cost, may range from a single course to an entire program of ten or more courses.
Vocational-technical schools are licensed, registered, or accredited like any other high school.
Though less common, some vocational-technical schools are full-time. Not only do they provide vocational and technical training, but they also provide traditional academics that students would typically receive during high school, all within one school district or building. Such schools often expose students to their academic classes during one half of the day, and to their vocational and technical classes during the other half.
Most vocational-technical schools, however, are part-time. This means that they only provide vocational and technical training, while the academic portion of their education is obtained from their home school district. Students engaged in such schools often spend one half of the school year at their home school for academic classes and the other half of the school year at the vocational-technical school for training, alternatively they may go to their home school in the morning and their vocational-technical school after lunch.
Programs that are common to vocational-technical schools include: