About the TCAT //

The College

Facilities

The Tennessee College of Applied Technology – Murfreesboro currently has two locations; The main campus is located in Murfreesboro and our partner facility with Nissan is located in Smyrna.

The Smyrna campus is known as the Tennessee College of Applied Technology – Murfreesboro, Smyrna Campus / Nissan Training Center. This campus serves our Automotive Technology, Industrial Electrical Maintenance, Machine Tool Technology, Information Technology and Welding Technology programs, with more programs being added soon.

Campus History

The Tennessee College of Applied Technology – Murfreesboro is one of 46 institutions in the Tennessee Board of Regents System, the seventh largest system of higher education in the nation. The Tennessee Board of Regents is the governing board for this system, which is comprised of six universities, fourteen community colleges, and twenty-seven technology colleges. The Tennessee Board of Regents System enrolls more than 80 percent of all Tennessee students attending public institutions of higher education.

The Tennessee Department of Education until 1983 governed the College when House Bill 697 and Senate Bill 746 transferred control to the Tennessee Board of Regents.

The Tennessee College of Applied Technology – Murfreesboro is situated on approximately thirteen acres of land on Highway 96 near Interchange 78 on Interstate 24. The College provides service statewide as well as locally, including all or parts of seven counties—Rutherford, Williamson, Davidson, Wilson, Cannon, Coffee, and Bedford.

In 1975 the vocational addition was added to the existing physical plant. Four programs began in February 1976: Air Conditioning & Refrigeration, Automotive Mechanics, Office Occupations, and Welding. The first students graduated in February 1977. Local industry needs made it possible for the College to begin an Industrial Electrical Program in July 1984.

The Tennessee Board of Regents approved and the legislature funded an expansion of the existing facility in 1996-97. This expansion doubled the size of the physical facility. The new programs added were: Dental Assistant, Pharmacy Technician, Computer Aided Design (CAD), Machine Tool Technology, and Computer Operations Technology. The Surgical Technician program was added in January 2001 and the Practical Nursing Program (LPN) began July 2001.

In January 2017, TCAT – Murfreesboro and Nissan North America began accepting its first students at the Smyrna Campus and Nissan Training Center. The 162,000 square-foot technical training center is jointly occupied by the college and Nissan, representing a public-private partnership between Nissan and the College System of Tennessee to create educational opportunities that are closely aligned to current workforce needs in the region. The $45.75 million, the state-of-the-art campus offers high-quality programs to prepare students and Nissan employees for careers in advanced manufacturing and other fields.

Both public TCAT students and employees from the Nissan Smyrna plant are enrolled at the education and training facility. Through classes in fields such as Automotive Technology, Collision Repair Technology, Industrial Electrical Maintenance / Mechatronics, Machine Tool Technology and Welding Technology, current and prospective workers learn valuable skills that can be directly applied in Nissan’s facilities or with other employers in the region.

Governor Haslam proposed the joint-use facility in his 2013 State of the State address and the Tennessee General Assembly approved a $35.4 million appropriation in the 2013-14 state budget. Nissan is paying $1.9 million through a lease agreement. The balance of the funding for its state-of-the-art training equipment and machinery came through internal TBR funding, grants from state and federal agencies, and donations from Nissan and its vendors.