History:

The inception of the center came about due to surveys in Chickasaw County showing that we had over 2200 industrial jobs. This prompted a committee to recruit NICC to help business, industry, and the general public to get the training they needed to keep up with the changing times. The committee felt there was enough diversity to develop training in our own county. This would also save time and money as people were having to commute elsewhere to get the specialized training that was required. The City of New Hampton, the County, and Trimark contributed to the startup costs of the center.

The center opened its doors on August 1, 1999. The college's presence came at a critical time due to the announcement of the Sara Lee Plant closing which would dislocate 600+ employees. Many of these individuals would take advantage of training dollars offered to them through a government grant. 200+ dislocated workers took part in training. Approximately 100 individuals acquired degrees. Others took life skill classes, computer classes, computer aided design classes, computerized numeric control classes, tractor trailer truck driving, and job seeking courses to upgrade their skills to get them back into the workforce.