Penn Foster High School Brings Career Preparation with New Healthcare and HVAC Pathways

We follow strict quality and ethics policies to make sure our content is honest, accurate, and helpful. Learn more about our editorial guidelines.

Heading to college after high school graduation isn't the only path to success. Students can seek options that also work for their lives and goals, preparing for new careers and building skills on their terms. They can even begin learning about careers and preparing for them while completing high school, setting them up to get a head start on future training and career confidence. With rising college costs, more students are exploring different education and training options that are more affordable, including career and technical training programs.

Through Penn Foster's new elective pathways options, students can start exploring healthcare or HVAC careers, learn foundational skills, and earn their high school diploma at the same time.

Key takeaways

• Career preparation can begin in high school, giving students an early look at potential careers and a head start on future training.
• Penn Foster’s Healthcare and HVAC Elective Pathways combine a high school diploma with foundational, career-focused coursework.
• The Healthcare pathway introduces students to medical terminology, billing, office procedures, and HIPAA guidelines.
• The HVAC pathway covers HVACR fundamentals, systems, installation, and maintenance while preparing students for the EPA Section 608 exam.
• These pathways help students explore career interests, build practical skills, and plan next steps after graduation—but additional training, certification, or licensing may be required.

Why career preparation can start in high school

For a long time, being a successful high school student automatically meant that, obviously, you'd go to college right after graduation. After all, a degree from a good, solid college program seemed like the only way to reliably get a "good job" later in life. But college isn't for every student and there are plenty of "good jobs" available that require different training. With confidence in the efficacy of college degrees waning over the last few years for both parents and students, enrolling in a four-year college doesn’t have the same appeal for every learner.

Instead, many students are looking for options that can provide swift, proven pathways toward stable, good paying jobs right out of high school. That's why career training and education can, and should, start in high school. It creates a clear path from graduation to the workforce, can help students feel confident in their skills and goals, and can give them a head start on training and credentialing programs.

Read more: How a High School Diploma Can Help Your Career

Why Penn Foster created the new Healthcare and HVAC Elective Pathways

Penn Foster High School created our new Healthcare and HVAC Elective Pathways to help learners explore careers, while also earning their high school diploma online. Through career-focused electives, they can build skills, learn foundational knowledge to help them build confidence in their future career plans, and get a head start on their next steps.

Besides helping students define a clear path forward, these programs are meant to help them build confidence in their future and have options that allow them to find measurable success. With less confidence in a traditional college pathway, more students - and their parents – are interested in pursuing options that can help them prepare for long-term success. In fact in a 2025 survey of over 500 parents of high school students, 48% said they were more confident in non-degree, career-focused pathways to prepare their children for the future, while 89% said they believe their child can build long-term success without a four-year degree.¹

While college can still be valuable to many students, for those who are looking for different options, career preparation can offer a real chance to make the most of their education in high school.

What the Healthcare Elective Pathway offers

The Penn Foster High School Healthcare Elective Pathway covers the credits and subjects needed to graduate high school, including English, math, science, and social studies. Students will then get an introduction to healthcare through two focused electives that cover topics such as HIPAA guidelines, medical office procedures, medical billing, and medical terminology. They'll also be able to choose three other elective classes to round out their education.

Through their healthcare-focused electives, students can explore whether or not a career in healthcare is right for them and even graduate with a head start on future training post-high school.

While earning their high school diploma and successfully completing the healthcare electives doesn't, by itself, qualify a graduate to immediately get a job in the field, it can help them take the next step. Their healthcare electives can be transferable to Penn Foster College training programs like Medical Billing and Coding, Medical Administrative Assistant, and our Medical Assistant Career Diploma.

Read more: Your Medical Billing and Coding Salary Guide

What the HVAC Elective Pathway offers

The Penn Foster High School HVAC Elective Pathway is for learners who want to take a closer look at the skilled trades while finishing high school. Students will complete their high school curriculum in English, math, history, and social studies, then focus on their electives. The two HVAC-focused electives cover topics including HVACR fundamentals, residential and commercial HVAC systems, and installation and maintenance.

Through their HVAC-focused electives, students can build a strong foundation for further HVACR training while also preparing to sit for the EPA Section 608 exam which is often required if your job includes working with refrigerants, though some state and federal regulations can vary based on your exact job and where you work. As part of the program, the cost of the certification exam is included in the cost of tuition. They'll also have the chance to choose three other electives that interest them to round out their diploma program and help them explore their interests.

After graduation, students can sit for the EPA 608 exam and then pursue further training through an apprenticeship, for example, to build hands-on skills and get a jump start into their new career path.

Read more: How to Become an HVAC Technician

How these pathways can help learners prepare for what comes after graduation

Besides earning an accredited online high school diploma, students can graduate from the elective pathways with a stronger understanding of healthcare and HVAC roles. They'll build essential skills that are used in real-world jobs and are able to explore their interests, making sure that the career path they choose is really what they want to do after graduation.

If, after completing their program, they still want to work in healthcare or become an HVAC technician, graduates have the tools and knowledge to take the next step. For those in the Healthcare Elective Pathway, that next step could be enrolling in a program to prepare for specific careers like medical billing and coding, medical assistant, or medical administrative assistant. With Penn Foster College's programs, students can even get a further head start through transferring their high school healthcare elective classes.²

For HVAC Elective Pathway graduates, the next step is to sit for and pass the EPA 608 exam. This credential is a requirement to work in the HVAC field, so they can move to their next step with a head start.³ From there, they'll want to look into things like apprenticeship opportunities to get their foot in the door and get hands-on education to apply what they learned online to real-world work.

How Penn Foster is connecting education with workforce needs

Strong career education should help learners understand what the work involves, what kinds of skills they will use, what extra credentials may be required, and whether there is a real need for those skills where they live. Through the High School Diploma Healthcare and HVAC Elective Pathways, students can build skills that are relevant to jobs that are facing worker shortages or offer strong job growth over the next decade.

Take healthcare, for example. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 1.9 million healthcare job openings each year over the next ten years. Combined with a healthcare workforce shortage that continues to negatively impact the industry, high school graduates that pursue training in healthcare roles could have plenty of opportunities to find stable, rewarding work. And, for employers in the industry, accelerating the timeline for graduates to earn the credentials that can qualify them for healthcare jobs can help fill gaps sooner, increasing the number of skilled workers available.

Those in the HVAC Elective Pathway can also see plenty of rewarding opportunities post-graduation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects around 40,000 new jobs in the field each year for the next decade, so it can be a great time for high school students and graduates to take the next step toward this career.

What career-connected high school education can make possible

High school is about much more than getting ready for a job. Learners still need strong foundations in communication, math, science, history, health, and all the other subjects that help them move through college, careers, and everyday life. But there is no reason career exploration has to wait until the diploma is finished, and college degrees aren't the only path toward good paying, rewarding careers.

With our online High School Diploma Elective Pathways, students can have the flexibility to prepare for what’s next while completing high school. They'll build job-specific skills, but also learn time management, self-discipline, and digital literacy skills that can be beneficial in any career. And, after graduation, they can take the next steps forward confident in their choices and plans!

Want more information about how the Elective Pathways work? Fill out this form for free information! Or, if you know what pathway is the best fit for you, you can enroll online 24/7!

¹ Data gathered from a Penn Foster survey of over 500 parents of students aged 14-18 conducted in December 2025.
² Healthcare electives are only transferable to Penn Foster College's Medical Administrative Assistant, Medical Billing and Coding, and Medical Assistant Career Diplomas. Credits will not transfer to another school or training program.
³ Career outcomes are not guaranteed. Healthcare careers may require additional education, training, certification, or licensing after high school completion. HVAC careers may require additional training, on-the-job experience, certification, and/or licensing depending on the role and location.

Tennessee program note: For Tennessee learners, Penn Foster requires 22 credits to graduate: four credits each in ELA and mathematics, and three credits each in science and social studies. Learners under 18 may also be assessed using a nationally standardized achievement test in ELA and mathematics.