How is College Tech Prep different from career-technical (vocational) education?
On the surface, College Tech Prep and career-technical education may look a lot alike. Both prepare high school students with job skills. Both demand a commitment to hard work and a willingness to learn. The main goal of career-technical education, however, is to prepare students to go directly to work in an entry-level job right after high school. College Tech Prep students also have that option, but Tech Prep’s main goal is to prepare the students to go to college so they can get the additional, high-performance skills needed for higher-skill, higher-wage careers in technology fields. Finally, because of the “College” objective in “College Tech Prep,” Tech Prep high school students are required to take college-prep academic courses; this is not a requirement for students in career-technical programs.
