Ranken Technical College opens new Ashland campus | Mid-Missouri News [Video]

ASHLAND — Community members came together Friday at the Ranken Technical College in Ashland to celebrate its new Workforce Development Center. 

The site broke ground in 2021, but Ranken President Don Pohl said the school has been working with the city of Ashland and Southern Boone High School much longer than that. 

“They (Southern Boone) had been trying to expose their students to technical careers and education, so they came and talked to us and the rest is history,” Pohl said. 

The institution has been in St. Louis since 1907 and has four locations. Now, its mid-Missouri campus will offer programs in carpentry and building construction technology, fabrication and welding technology, industrial maintenance technology and information technology. 

The center was possible thanks to a $4.5 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

The center provides “undergraduate day programs” where students, typically out of high school, will join the college, gain skills, then get …