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TCAT Northwest: Providing Another Road To Education
By Jason Peevyhouse
For almost 60 years, TCAT Northwest has been helping the residents of Newbern and Northwest Tennessee gain a greater knowledge of technical- based occupations as the facility has been preparing its students to join the workforce immediately after completing their courses – and sometimes sooner.
The facility in Newbern was built in 1965 and is a merged institution.
TCAT Northwest President Dr. Youlanda Jones said after the facility’s founding, it began to grow over the course of the coming decades. In addition, the facility has underwent some changes to its name since its founding.
From being known as the “Vo-tech” facility to the Tennessee Technology Center to its current name of Tennessee College of Applied Technology.
Regardless of the name, Dr. Jones said the facility is the premier
provider of technical education which encompasses hands on skills in meeting the need for industries in West Tennessee.
“So, what we do is we train or retrain workers for premier positions,” Dr. Jones said. “Which includes everything from industrial maintenance to nursing to truck driving. We have 28 programs that we currently offer.”
Dr. Jones added the facility is a need- based facility which continues to grow.
“We are getting ready to add a new groundbreaking for our new facility which will be an aviation mechanics program,” Dr. Jones explained. “It
will be built right outside (of the main building) in the front area (of the property). That will be one of our new programs.
“Also, starting in the fall, one of our
shared programs will be administrative office technology which will be coming to this campus.”
TCAT Northwest has five campus with Newbern’s serving as its main campus. The branch campuses include Ripley, Covington, Bells, and Union City.
TCAT Northwest’s President said there are plenty of things to make attending a technical institution like this attractive to potential students.
“We are open enrollment, actually admit students every week,” Dr. Jones said. “For us, we look at students as our top priority. We meet the students where they are and take them where they want to be which is straight into the workforce. We do prepare students to go straight into the workforce.”
The facility’s Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. JacQuene Rainey, said TCAT’s programs can range from 222 hours to 12-20 months. The cost for
WILLIAM NORTHCUTT
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