Athens Technical College

Athens Technical College is located in Athens, Georgia about 70 miles east of Atlanta. Athens is the seat of Clarke County and a university town that is the site of the University of Georgia, a popular land, sea and air research university. Three additional facilities offer courses at Athens Tech in Elberton, Greensboro and Monroe.

Athens Technical College was founded in 1958 when the Clarke County Public Schools teamed with the Georgia Department of Education to establish a vocational-technical school for the area. Classes convened in old army barracks in downtown Athens until 1966. After that, the school relocated to a new building three miles from downtown. Expansion projects in 1980 added 155,000 square feet of administrative offices, classrooms and laboratories. In 1986, the school joined the Georgia system of technical institutes governed by the State Department of Technical and Adult Education. In 1987, the name of the school was changed to Athens Area Technical Institute. The school later took over the responsibility of adult literacy programs throughout the region. Basic reading, math, English as a second language, GED classes and workplace literacy classes were taught to help support the local economy.

In 1995, a third expansion to the school added another 34,000 square feet of classrooms, office space and a library. The Walton County location opened, and w groundbreaking ceremonies took place for a campus in Elberton. The Elberton satellite opened in 1997. The following year, the Greene County satellite opened.

The school became Athens Technical College in the year 2000 in accordance with Georgia House Bill 1187 which stated that institutions offering Associate's degrees would be called colleges. The school then acquired 10 more acres and an additional 8,000 square foot building next door to the Athens campus. In 2005, a new business and information technology building opened.

Athens Tech's programs of study are geared towards the field of healthcare. About 40 percent of the school's graduates receive degrees in healthcare. The local Athens Regional Medical Center, Ty Cobb Healthcare System and Minnie G. Boswell Memorial Hospital are some of the larger employees of graduating students. The school has recently reinforced its commitment to the healthcare industry by expanding the biotechnology curriculum. The hope is to attract biotechnology industries to the state.

There has been a recent focus on the culinary arts at Athens Tech with professional culinary training classes offered since 2006. Another new initiative is the Quick Start program, a partnership to develop training for new industries in Georgia.

Athens Technical College is very important to the state of Georgia's educational system and economy.