Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Shelbyville had an open house Tuesday evening to invite potential students to tour the facility and meet instructors.

Mike Miller and James Cochrane of the Information Technology and Infrastructure Management (ITIM) department had a table set up during the open house. The program teaches students everything from building a PC to networking

Miller and Cochrane said their department is one of the more popular careers as they had a total of 54 students this trimester.

Out of 24 of those graduating students, 20 had job placements by the time of graduation, according to Cochrane.

“And that’s our goal—to get kids a job,” said Cochrane. Many of those students go to work at CHS, HCA, DaVita, and the Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tullahoma .

Instructor Todd Swerske is an instructor for Computer Aided Design (CAD). He has a total of 11 students, some are in dual-enrollment or completing a co-op work study with local employers.

Being in a highly industrial area makes career opportunities like this program essential, he said.

The program focuses on mechanical drawings and switches over to architectural building. Most students who graduate from the program go on to work for places like NES and Jacobs Engineering. In all, there are 27 career options in the program, according to Swerske.

“You get a lot of training here. Working six days a week, these students work really hard and get a lot of training,” he said. Swerske himself came through TCAT-S's machine shop program.

Those at the open house also got to look around the practical nursing, machine tool technology, and industrial maintenance labs and classrooms as well.

The new TCAT-S facility is planned to be located at the 231 North Business Park on U.S.  231. A couple of opening events are planned to begin around mid-April, according to TCAT-S President Laura Monks.