PSSC History

The concept of a multi-school district skills center in the state of Washington began as a vision in 1966 in an old, abandoned building in the Tukwila School District and later Central Elementary School. The Occupational Skills Center (OSC) opened as the state's first Skills Center in the fall of 1966 as a cooperative of the Federal Way, Highline, and Tukwila school districts. Ninety-six students arrived that fall to participate in Medical Assisting, Commercial Foods, Plastics, and Fashion Classes. Two years later a Marine Technology program was started in a beach house at Seahurst Park. In 1999 the Tahoma School District joined Highline, Federal Way, and Tukwila as part of the Skills Center Cooperative.

The Superintendents and boards from the cooperating districts were pleased with the skills center concept, and with strong community support for passage of a bond election, constructed a 36,000 square foot new facility that opened in January 1972. OSC continued to operate as the only cooperative skills center in the state until 1977 when other skills centers opened in Bremerton, Mukilteo, and Yakima. All the 10 current skills centers operating in Washington followed the OSC Model.

In 1986, the campus was remodeled an additional 27,000 square feet of classroom and laboratory space was added to house the growing number of students in high demand industry training programs. Approximately 800 students are now enrolled at what is currently called Sea-Tac Occupational Skills Center. In 1977 the state legislature provided $1.1M through the state's Capital Budget for updating and modernization of facilities. The Skills Center was fortunate to receive a capital budget allocation of $850,000 in 2000. The combined 1977 and 2000 allocations allowed the skills center to add new programs and provide extended student services.

Throughout the years, the operation of the Skills Center has had a primary focus of providing entry-level skills training to high school juniors and seniors. The Skills Center has the capability to start and close programs as the job market changes. Over the past decades, new programs have been added, others have been modified, and some have been dropped. Currently our set of courses includes nineteen different programs, including the off-campus Environmental & Marine Science program that operates at Seahurst Park in Burien and Welding Careers in Renton.

On-campus programs include:

Auto Body Technology | Automotive Technology | Computer Network Systems | Construction

Technology | Criminal Justice | Culinary Arts | Dental Careers | DigiPen Video Game Programming |

DigiPen Animation | Digital Media Arts | Engineering Design | Environmental & Marine Science | Fashion

Design &Marketing| Fire Services | Leadership & Management in Business | Nursing Assistant Certified |

Translation and Interpretation | VITAL | Welding Careers

In addition to vocational training, the skills center also provides opportunity for approximately 80 students per year to participate in a program called VITAL (Vocational Instruction Through Applied Academic Learning) to earn a high school diploma that is issued by their sending high school. And a new Third Session which is similar to VITAL was added in 2004.

A summer school program was added in 1983 when the State Legislature saw the need for students to explore careers and begin acquiring job skills at an earlier age. As the only state-funded summer school program, Skills Centers are able to offer training to students just completing grades eighth through twelve. Summer school has operated for 19 consecutive years and now serves 500-600 students every year.

When OSC was first established in 1966, the premise was that multiple districts could provide state-of-the art workforce preparation in a cost effective and programmatically efficient manner. That concept is as true today as it was in 1966. The instructional strategies in place in the Skills Centers are exactly the types of educational reforms that are being discussed for all of education. Students in the Skills Center master their competencies in an applied, contextual manner; receive instruction in advancing technologies; are connected to the workforce; and are prepared to transition to both college and work after graduation from high school. Many students earn required academic credits along with elective vocational credits and college credits while enrolled in Skills Center programs. Follow-up data on skills center completers attest to the success of skills center students, with 85%+ gainfully employed, working full or part-time, and/or going to college one year after high school graduation.

The school changed its name to Puget Sound Skills Center (PSSC) on May 1st, 2007 at the 40th anniversary celebration.