Mission

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.

History

The Tennessee College of Applied Technology - Dickson is one of 27 technical colleges across the state serving the citizens of  Tennessee. This system of schools was made possible by legislation enacted by the 1963 General Assembly of Tennessee, Chapter 229 of House Bill 633.

Chapter 181, Senate Bill 746-House Bill 697, of the Public Act of 1983 transferred the governance of the state technical institutes and area vocational-technical schools from the State Board of Education to the Tennessee Board of Regents. The transfer became effective on July 1, 1983, and included 46 institutions, being the sixth largest system of higher education in the nation. By action of the Tennessee Legislature, the school name changed in 1994 from Dickson State Area Vocational Technical School to Tennessee Technology Center at Dickson.

In 2013, the Legislature changed the name of the schools to the Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology.

The Tennessee Board of Regents and the Board of Trustees of the University of Tennessee System are coordinated by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC). THEC was created by the General Assembly in 1967 in order to achieve better coordination and unity in the programs of public higher education in Tennessee.