Tech Prep or 2+2 Apprenticeship

Tech Prep is an initiative that originally was funded by the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990. It is a four-year program of technology-related study that combines academic and vocational courses and leads to an associate degree. Because Tech Prep encompasses the last two years of high school and two years of postsecondary education, it is often called a "2 + 2" apprenticeship.

Paris and Mason (1995) describe this option in more detail:

"Tech Prep or 2+2 Apprenticeship programs combine the educational components of a Tech Prep curriculum with youth apprenticeship work-base learning. Tech Prep components consist of linking the last two years of high school with the first two years of college or technical college; this articulation leads to an associate degree. An emphasis is placed on applied academics in an integrated, progressive curriculum where students have the opportunity to take advanced technical courses in high school and may receive college credit. These components are teamed with a strong youth apprenticeship work-based learning component which offers worksite learning and work experience. The work-based component adds additional academic and vocational integration, school and workplace integration, articulation options, credentials in both academic and occupational skill mastery and involves broad coalitions of institutional partnerships including business, industry and labor.

In Illinois, for example, Tech Prep Youth Apprenticeship programs grew out of existing Tech Prep programs which had limited work-based learning sites. An integral part of the new program development was to create expanded work-based learning components through youth apprenticeships. These programs were developed by working partnerships between business, industry, labor (especially the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training), schools and state agencies." (p. 42)

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