The Tennessee College of Applied Technology Jackson, located in Jackson, Tennessee, is part of a statewide system of public technical colleges established by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1963 to provide accessible workforce education across the state. Instruction at the Jackson campus began in 1965, and the institution has since evolved to reflect changes in mission, governance, and scope, including a system name change to Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology in 2013.

Today, TCAT Jackson operates under the governance of the Tennessee Board of Regents and delivers technical education across multiple main and non‑main campus locations, including extension campuses and instructional service centers in Jackson, Whiteville, Lexington, Stanton, Brownsville, Humboldt, and Henderson. Several sites were established through partnerships, facility transitions, or system mergers, including the Council on Occupational Education–approved merger of TCAT Whiteville into TCAT Jackson, finalized in 2021.

The institution currently offers certificate and diploma programs designed to meet regional workforce needs, with all campus and service center locations administered by the main campus and operating under a unified governance, accreditation, and academic structure.

The training offered at TCAT Jackson is designed to meet the needs of our external customer, the employer, and our internal customer, the student. To accomplish this goal, the school has designed curricula that will train students to enter a career field, make a career change, or acquire the skills necessary for promotion.

In addition to the 27 full-time programs offered by the college, Special Industry Training is offered to meet the demands of local employers for short-term custom-designed programs. Such programs result from employer-specific inquiries and/or referrals from state agencies such as Economic and Community Development, West Tennessee Industrial Association, or local Chambers of Commerce. Supplemental evening classes are offered to meet community needs for short-term, timely topic training. While not a diploma track, they do allow the general public, employed technicians, or selected healthcare professionals to expand their knowledge of a chosen field. Areas such as Machining, Computer Operations, Welding, and Industrial Maintenance are offered as the need arises.

TCAT Jackson is one of 24 Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology and 37 total institutions in the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) system that are located across the state, serving the citizens of Tennessee. The TBR 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 to achieve coordination and unity in the programs of public higher education in Tennessee. The TBR system was created 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. By action of the Tennessee Legislature in 1994, the school name changed from Jackson State Area Vocational Technical School to Tennessee Technology Center at Jackson In 2013, the Legislature unanimously approved changing the name of the state’s technology centers to the Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology.

The Tennessee Board of Regents, the governing body for Tennessee College of Applied Technology Jackson, underwent a major shift in 2017 because of the FOCUS Act of 2016 and the appointment of a new Chancellor, Dr. Flora Tydings. The FOCUS Act seeks to ensure the state’s Community Colleges and Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology are organized, supported, and empowered in efforts to increase the percentage of Tennesseans with a postsecondary credential. Largely this involved the development of local governing boards for each of the six universities, thus allowing TBR a greater focus on the 13 Community Colleges and 24 Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology. Additional TBR efforts under the leadership of Dr. Tydings included the retitling of the chief administrative officers of the Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology from Director to President; the movement towards all 37 campuses in the TBR system operating with shared services; and, the restructuring of the TBR organization uniting the community and Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology through common offices and services.

Directors and Presidents