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Delivery Systems
Idaho’s Professional-Technical Education System is the state’s primary educational delivery system for preparing Idaho’s workforce. Professional-technical education programs are integrated into a larger, academic institutional structure through public school districts or postsecondary institutions. It is also closely aligned with other workforce development partners coordinated by the Idaho Workforce Development Council.
Postsecondary professional-technical education programs and services are delivered through a statewide system of six technical colleges. Technical colleges deliver: occupational programs on a full- or part-time basis; adult upgrading and retraining; customized training; related instruction for apprentices; and, emergency services training which includes fire service, hazardous materials and anti-terrorism training. Workforce development/customized training, delivered through the technical college system (Workforce Training Network), trains individuals who need to upgrade their current job skills and/or develop new job skills to remain in their current job or find new employment. This training also responds directly to the specific needs of new and expanding business and industry. Each technical college has a Center for New Directions to provide individual assessment, counseling, job readiness training and supportive services to displaced homemakers and single parents needing extra assistance to succeed. Many of the technical colleges are also responsible for adult basic education (ABE).
Secondary professional-technical education programs and services are provided through junior high/middle schools, comprehensive high schools, professional-technical schools and cooperative programs with the technical colleges.
Linkages -- Tech Prep links secondary and postsecondary professional-technical programs through written and approved articulation agreements between high schools and technical colleges. These agreements help students prepare for work by linking two years of education in high school with two or more years in technical college. Tech Prep allows students to shorten and/or enhance their postsecondary education because they have earned postsecondary credit while in high school.
