Industrial Cooperative Training (ICT) Department
For juniors and seniors who have decided to learn a trade or industrial occupation, through actual on-the-job experiences, ICT is a two-year elective course sanctioned by the Trade and Industrial Division of the State Department of Education. Students enrolled in the program spend fifteen hours a week or more in a selected job in the community.
In addition to this work, or training experience, they attend high school for a portion of each school day studying subjects required for graduation and taking special courses related to their occupational objective.
This program offers a wide variety of industrial training in such occupational fields as machinist, auto mechanics, air conditioning, and printing; and in such service occupations as cosmetology, nursing aid, medical technology, dental assisting, dry cleaning, and others.
Although ICT is designed for the non-college bound student, it does give the academically capable an opportunity to pursue a formal objective at the college level. In any event, the student is better prepared to take his/her place as a contributing member of the community upon graduation from high school.
The student earns three credits toward graduation for each year spent in the ICT program. Classroom participation and on-the-job progress must be satisfactory in order to receive the proper credits. The student must also accumulate a minimum of 540 hours on the job during a single school year.
Related instruction is an important part of the overall ICT program:
Directly Related - Individual classroom instruction, which affects the student in his/her own job. Examples: A student working as an automobile mechanic would study mechanics at his/her own rate of speed in class. The second-year student would upgrade his/her study in mechanics or perhaps advance to a special phase such as hydraulics.
Generally Related - Classroom instruction that affects each student regardless of his/her chosen occupation. Examples: Everyone would study such topics as: personality traits; personal progress; good grooming; employer-employee relations; insurance; credit study; banking, saving and budgeting; contracts, investing, job applications; interviewing; and human relations. The second year of study is directed toward an understanding of the free enterprise system. Stress is placed on the study of the economic functions of business and the problems of management. Taxation and the effects of government on the operation of business and services are also examined.
In the final analysis, ICT attempts to instill in the student a conscientious attitude toward responsibilities on the job, and to coworkers, family, community, and self. This, plus the desire to further education in a chosen vocation, is considered essential to successful growth.
