NEW ALBANY — Students get hands-on experience with industrial tools, computers, vehicle repair and lots of other technical skills.

But don’t call the Prosser Career Education Center a vocational school.

The school changed its name and logo earlier this year. But Alan Taylor, director of career and technical education, said the change is more than skin deep.

“For years, there was this idea that if students weren’t going to college that they were going to vocational school,” Taylor said. “It’s not just a plan A or plan B for students. We ask them what they want to do and secondly, what kind of training that will take. I don’t want to beat up on the word vocational, but it just kind of brings stereotypes with it, unfortunately.”

Rather than preparing students for going straight into the workforce with a set of skills, he said Prosser aims to get students a whole set of opportunities. With more than 3,000 college credits and more than 740 industrial certifications awarded last year, he said students have the ability to take their knowledge with them to college.

“We’re about career and technical education,” Taylor said. “We’ve actually placed it in our name. We do think that if we can get people into our facility and experience it, they’ll be surprised at the opportunities we make available to our students.”

Many of the programs at Prosser can earn students college credit free of charge to local universities, such as Purdue University or Vincennes University.

Programs have been added to the list at the school, including fire and rescue and criminal justice, but current programs like nursing have also been expanded.

“It’s not just bringing in new programs, it’s looking at the ones we already have and seeing how we can improve them,” Taylor said.

But the name change wasn’t intended just to change perceptions of what happens at the school, it also has had an effect on students.

Principal Kathy Wheeler said she thinks the culture of students at Prosser has shifted with the name change.

“I truly believe they’re more focused and they understand why they’re here,” Wheeler said. “No matter what class they’re in, they’re realizing there’s a curriculum involved. They know there’s going to be a standard to learn and follow.”

She said the teachers and staff have always taken the education of students seriously, especially since they’re held to the same standards of teachers in the rest of the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp.

Taylor said he feels like his staff is on board with the mission to get students prepared for whatever path they choose after high school and that the changes at Prosser reflect that idea.

“I feel like we’ve got the accelerator smashed to the floorboard and I don’t think we’re going to let up,” Taylor said. “We can’t just rest on our past successes and become complacent. If we do, we’ll quickly become irrelevant.”