Mission Statement
The Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology serve as the premier suppliers of workforce development throughout the State of Tennessee.
The colleges fulfill their mission by:
- Providing competency-based training through superior quality, traditional, and distance learning instruction methods that qualify completers for employment and job advancement;
- Contributing to the economic and community development of the communities served by training and retraining employed workers;
- Ensuring that programs and services are economical and accessible to all residents of Tennessee: and
- Building relationships of trust with community, business, and industry leaders to supply highly skilled workers in areas of need.
Vision
To enhance the quality of life of:
- The individual Tennessee citizen
- The Tennessee family
- The local community
Campus History
The Tennessee College of Applied Technology is the premier workforce development training provider for Northeast Tennessee, serving’s students and employers in Carter, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi and Washington counties.
One of 27 Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology serving 5.8 million residents of the state of Tennessee, TCAT Elizabethton is governed by the Tennessee Board of Regents and accredited by the Commission of the Council on Occupational Education.
Established in 1963 by legislation enacted by the Tennessee General Assembly, the State Area Vocational Technical School at Elizabethton opened October 1, 1965 at the Herman Robinson campus, 1500 Arney Street, Elizabethton, with its first class in Automotive Mechanics. In 1994, the statewide system of schools was renamed Tennessee Technology Centers and, in 2013, Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology.
In 1998, TCAT Elizabethton occupied its first building expansion at 426 Highway 91 North in the Watauga Industrial Park. In October of 1999, the school opened an instructional site in Mountain City, offering Administrative Office Technology, and later in Kingsport, offering classes in Practical Nursing.
In 2014, all training programs at TCAT Elizabethton were moved to the Main Campus when a $16 million consolidated campus construction project was completed. Construction of three new buildings and renovation of a fourth building began in August of 2012. The consolidated campus provides 95,000 square feet of training space. It replaced the 30,000 square foot training facility located at the Herman Robinson Campus.
The Mountain City Extension Campus was moved to the campus of Johnson County High School in the summer of 2020 and a part-time evening Diesel-Powered Equipment Technology program was added to meet local industry needs. Further, the Kingsport Higher Education Center was relocated to the campus of the old Sullivan North High School in January of 2022 in a partnership with the City of Kingsport. The initial programs offered at the Kingsport Higher Education Center were Practical Nursing and Building Construction Technology. For fall of 2023, Automotive Technology, Collision Repair Technology, and Diesel-Powered Equipment Technology will be added to the campus.
We invite you to tour the campus, speak with our faculty, staff and students, and learn about the training programs available to you and members of your family. Some of our graduates are third and fourth generations of the same family who received the training necessary to provide a livelihood for them and their family.
Gov. Bill Haslam signs legislation into law to change the name of Tennessee Technology Centers to Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology, effective July 1, 2013. TCAT Elizabethton Director Dean Blevins said the mission remains the same. "TCATs have always been excellent higher education institutions offering post-secondary programs for workforce preparation," Blevins said.