Among the many services provided by the technical colleges to secondary schools are such things as developing articulation agreements, counselor workshops, teaching training, career fairs, and teacher extern programs. At the heart of the federal Tech Prep initiative is the development of coherent sequences of secondary and postsecondary courses leading to an associate degree or two-year certificate in one of six fields specified in the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Applied Technology Education Act of 1990. Wisconsin has developed an extensive system of local and state articulation agreements between secondary and postsecondary education institutions. Students receive advanced standing when high school courses or competencies are equivalent to a technical college course and the course is taught by a high school teacher in the local high school. Students receive credit for advanced standing if they enroll in a technical college within 27 months after high school graduation.
Students receive college credit on an official transcript after successful completion of the course.
Through an agreement among all the technical college districts, transcripted credit can be transported throughout the state. Advanced standing is also transportable, though in comparable courses only. There are a total of 3,717 advanced standing and 271 transcripted credit arrangements through local articulation agreements. Statewide articulation agreements in manufacturing and electronics will be available during the 1998 - 1999 school year. In addition, all 14 youth apprenticeship areas have statewide advanced standing articulation agreements that allow students completing state Youth Apprenticeship programs who enroll in a technical college program to receive a minimum number of advanced standing credits.