Many high schools, including vocational or trade high schools, offer a range of computer science, digital media, or business applications courses. The specifics of these offerings depend on the history and popularity of the department and the nature of the local business community. If an art teacher is hired who has special skill in digital photography, for example, the school may offer a course to take advantage of their skill and interest, and IT professional swill be expected to support the hardware and software needs of this course.
It is unlikely that students enrolled in a comprehensive high school or even a vocational high school will be prepared to pass professional licensing exams after these courses, so they are best described as pre-professional courses. Despite this label, school leaders and faculty do strive to replicate professional computing environments, so computers with full operating systems and professional software titles are generally necessary in the classroom where these courses are taught.
Many high schools have computer science departments that offer Advanced Placement (AP) computer science courses which are designed to prepare students to take the exams published by the College Board. While these are promoted as being equivalent to college courses, and students often enroll with the expectation that they will earn college credit for passing the exam, those decisions are made by colleges, and they have been increasingly reluctant to grant credit for passing scores.
One of the other challenging situations for IT professionals related to supporting teaching about technology is the situation in which schools teach courses designed to prepare students for positions in information technology fields. Especially difficult situations are those in which students must learn to manage networks. Obviously, these courses are taught on networks that are isolated from the network used by other users in the school.