A vocational school, also sometimes referred to as a trade school is one operated for the express purpose of giving its students the skills needed to perform a certain job or jobs. It is usually a post-secondary school, but in some instances may take the place of the final years of high school. Vocational schools do not exist to further education in the sense of liberal arts, but rather to teach primarily or only job-specific skills, and as such are better considered to be institutions devoted to training, not education.

Vocational skills may be public schools and as such operated by a government, school district or other officially-sanctioned group, in which case they may or may not charge tuition. Most purely vocational schools are private schools; within this group they may be further subdivided into non-profit schools and proprietary schools, operated for the economic benefit of their owners. For a long time many proprietary vocational schools had a poor reputation for quality in many instances, and for overpromising what the job prospects for their graduates would actually be; this has been largely corrected by more stringent regulation.

Vocational Schools in Ireland

A vocational school in Ireland is a type of secondary education school which places a large emphasis on vocational and technical education, this lead to some confict in the 1960s when the Regional Technical College system was in developement. Typically the schools are managed by Vocational Education Committees which are largely based on city or county boundaries. Establishment of the schools is largely by the state; funding is through block grant system providing about 90% of necessary funding requirements.

Vocational schools typically have further education courses in addition to the traditional courses at secondary level. For instance Post Leaving Certificate Courses which are intended for school leavers and pre-third level education students.

Until the 1970s the vocational schools were seen as inferior to the other schools then available in Ireland. This was mainly because traditional courses such as the Leaving Certificate were not available at the schools, however this changed with the Investment in Education (1962) report which resulted in an upgrade in their status. Currently about 25% of secondary education students attend these schools.