Throwback Thursday – SKyCTC Celebrates 80 Years

One of Bowling Green’s educational institutions is celebrating 80 years of learning this year. Founded in 1939, this week we’re sharing the history of Southcentral Kentucky Community & Technical College, or SKYCTC.

Eighty years ago, the National Youth Administration and Western Kentucky State Teachers College sponsored the establishment of this school. Called the Western Trade School, it operated as a training facility for industrial workers. The U.S. entered WWII just two years after the school opened, and the federal government oversaw it as a training center for Armed Forces personnel.

After the war ended, the federal government released the school to the Kentucky Department of Education to be operated as a regional trade school under the umbrella of Western. It functioned this way for nearly 20 years until 1962, when the school became independent and was renamed Western Area Vocational School.  

The current main campus was established in 1968, as the school became Bowling Green Area Vocational School. More buildings were constructed for classrooms, and by 1982, more than $6 million had been invested in the programs and equipment.

The school became the Bowling Green Regional Technology Center in 1996, just a year before it was absorbed into the Kentucky Community & Technical College system as it is now.

Regional campuses in Franklin and Glasgow have since been added, and the name change to Southcentral Kentucky Community & Technical College was complete in 2012. With over five thousand students enrolled, the school offers more than 30 programs across six campuses.