About the Community and Technical Colleges

Goals of the two-year colleges

Economic Demand – Strengthen state and local economies by meeting the demands for a well-educated and skilled workforce.
Student Success – Achieve increased educational attainment for all residents across the state.
Innovation – Use technology, collaboration and innovation to meet the demands of the economy and improve student success.

The CTC System – Fast Facts

There are 34 community and technical colleges in Washington state.
Community and technical colleges served nearly half a million people – 460,696 students – in 2007-08. This unduplicated headcount represents each student counted only once, even if the student enrolled for more than one quarter or at more than one college during the year.

Workforce Training

Worker Retraining FTES increase and decrease based on the extent of job layoffs due to a changing economy. In fall 2008, Worker Retraining FTES increased 28 percent as a result of increasing unemployment.

Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) pairs ABE or ESL with workforce training. Some 1,768 students were enrolled for 773 FTE in programs in fields such as allied health, industrial maintenance, automotive, and early childhood education.

eLearning

eLearning enrollment continued its double-digit growth rate in 2007-08. About 16,888 FTEs were served via online instruction (exclusive of hybrid and Web enhanced courses), an increase of 17 percent from 2006-07, and 91 percent of all eLearning (18,645 FTEs).

More than 89,600 students enrolled in eLearning classes, including 81,727 taking online courses.

Literacy Education

Two-year colleges provide 95 percent of all adult literacy education in the state.

In 2007-08, some 15,875 FTEs (12 percent) were generated by students enrolled with an immediate goal of basic skills [Adult Basic Education (ABE), English as a second language (ESL), General Education Development (GED) preparation or high school completion].

Transfer Preparation

More than 1/3 of transfer students are the first in their family to go to college. Two-year colleges provide the initial education for 41 percent of students receiving bachelor’s degrees. This includes: 53 percent of K-12 teachers, 38 percent of engineering, technology, science, and math bachelor’s degrees; and about 78 percent of nurses.

New this year is a focus on science, technology, engineering and math transfer (STEM) with 7,200 STEM majors enrolled in 4,190 FTE.

CTC Bachelor's Pilots

In fall 2007, more than 100 students began their junior year in one of four applied baccalaureate degree programs in the CTC system:

Bellevue Community College – Bachelor of Applied Science in Radiation and Imaging Sciences
Peninsula College – Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Management
Olympic College – Bachelor of Science Nursing
South Seattle Community College – Bachelor of Applied Science in Hospitality Management

For a detailed history of the community and technical college system, visit: http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/general/a_history.aspx

For a map showing the location of all 34 community and technical colleges, visit: http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/general/c_index.aspx