Technical school is a general term used for two-year college which provide mostly employment-preparation skills for trained labor, such as welding, culinary arts and office management.

The Association for Career and Technical Education is the largest U.S. education association dedicated to promoting career and technical education for youth and adults.

Technical school is also the term used in the United States Armed Forces for the job specific training given immediately after recruit training. Though similar to the training provided by a two-year college, the training is much more concise, eschewing any coursework outside the minimum necessary to begin working in the chosen career field; additionally, the training is more time intensive, often including more than 9 in-class hours per day. Military technical school is typically 1 to 3 months in duration, though some schools are as short as 2 weeks or as long as 2 years.

Upon graduation, military technical school recruits are qualified only as apprentices and must work under supervision until they have completed a more extensive on-the-job training program. Many times the military training can be converted to standard university credits, leaving the graduating recruit with only a few general education requirement courses (such as speech or composition) to complete in order to receive the more traditional 2-year technical school diploma referenced above.