Career and Technical Education

At Altamont Community High School we offer many different types of Career and Technical Education courses.  None of these courses are required to graduate, but nested inside of our Career and Technical Education department is the Consumer Education department.  To graduate a student must obtain .5 credits of Consumer Education or Economics.

Family and Consumer Sciences:
This Comprehensive list courses includes studies of the knowledge and skills that are useful for the efficient and productive management of the home. Course topics typically include foods and nutrition; clothing; child development and care; housing design, decoration, and maintenance; consumer decisions and personal financial management; and interpersonal relationships. Food and Nutrition courses provide students with an understanding of food’s role in society, instruction in how to plan and prepare meals, experience in the proper use of equipment and utensils, and background on the nutritional needs and requirements for healthy living.


Industrial Technology:
Offering a plethora of classes, our Industrial Technology department allows for students to gain the foundations of technology by focusing on three dimensions of technological literacy: knowledge, ways of thinking and acting and capabilities.  Once students have established the foundations of technology they are able to split off into many different courses such as: carpentry, production technology, energy utilization, transport technology or building maintenance.  Our Industrial Technology courses also include courses in Computer Aided Drafting as well as an introduction to Technical Drafting.

Construction Trades Educational Curriculum (CTEC):
This is an off campus course that is offered by Altamont Community High School but it is taught by licensed and active trade people who operate around the Effingham area.  Students who are interested in this course must apply their junior year and must be able to pass an OSHA 10 certification.The CTEC program exposes students to the various skills required by the construction trades.  This course provides fundamental instruction in trades areas such as plumbing, electrical, framing, roofing, masonry, carpentry, and HVAC.

Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities (CEO):
Students must apply for this course their junior year and will be notified by the end of the year if they were accepted into the course or not.  The CEO program acquaints students with the knowledge and skills necessary to own and operate their own businesses. Topics from several fields typically form the course content: economics, marketing principles, human relations and psychology, business and labor law, legal rights and responsibilities of ownership, business and financial planning, finance and accounting, and communication. Several topics surveyed in Business Management courses may also be included.

OKAW Vocational School:
Courses are offered at the OKAW Area Vocational Center in Vandalia and are available to Altamont students.  Each course has its own prerequisites; however, junior status in high school and at least age sixteen are requirements for all programs.