About SCC • History

History of SCC

The 2002 merger of Laurel Technical College, Somerset Community College, and Somerset Technical College produced a comprehensive community and technical college whose beginning reaches back to 1940. The three institutions became members of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System in 1998 and began their merger plans soon after.

Originally a part of the University of Kentucky Community College System, Somerset Community College opened in 1965 with approximately 300 students. The College extended its campus east to London, Kentucky and south to Whitley City, Kentucky in 1992. The College operated an off-campus program in several surrounding counties before 1992, but the Laurel Center in London and the McCreary Center in Whitley City were the first two permanent centers outside Somerset Community College’s original Pulaski County home.

The Russell Center in Russell Springs opened in 2003 and the
Clinton Center in Albany, Kentucky opened in 2004. Laurel Technical College began in 1971 as a vocational school governed by the Kentucky Department of Education. The school added a post-secondary component in 1985 and began offering programs designed to teach adult learners both academic and technical skills.

Somerset Technical College began in 1940 under the Somerset Board of Education’s control. Originally named the Somerset Vocational School, the institution came under Kentucky Department of Education governance in 1970. The school offered Kentucky’s first publicly supported aviation maintenance program, and began accepting post-
secondary students in 1970.

Somerset Community College serves students on two campuses and four centers in south-central Kentucky. The College also offers distance learning opportunities through on-line classes, televised courses, and courses at off-campus sites throughout southern
Kentucky. In Academic Year 2006-2007 Somerset Community College served students from sixty-three of Kentucky’s 120 counties.