BTC has been providing skills-focused education to thousands of local and regional students since 1957. BTC is located in beautiful Bellingham, Washington, about 90 miles north of Seattle, and 60 miles south of Vancouver, BC.

1911

The first Industrial School is planned and built by the Bellingham School District. It evolved into a manual-training section of Whatcom High School.

1917

Courses in automotive mechanics and machine shop were offered at Fairhaven High School.

1940

With World War II looming, evening classes are established. Over 4,000 people received industry training during the war.

1952

Realizing that vocational programming was not serving the community’s needs, planners began work on what will become the present BTC.

1957

Bellingham Vocational Technical Institute is established on the current 32-acre site, a former truck farm. BVTI is operated by the Bellingham School District.

1991

Bellingham Vocational Technical Institute is renamed Bellingham Technical College. State legislative action designates BTC as a member of the Washington State Community and Technical College system.

2011

BTC becomes a member institution of Achieving the Dream, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping students—particularly low-income and students of color—stay in school and earn a college certificate or degree.

Current

BTC’s campus currently encompasses 32 acres (including the Marine Drive Annex).

Program Mix 2023-24

57% Workforce

18% Basic Skills

2% Transfer

23% Other

Course Enrollment Mix 2023-24

65% Workforce

18% General Education or Workforce Preparatory

10% Basic Skills

2% Pre-College

4% Community Service/Continuing Education

Degrees & Certificates

46 Associate of Applied Science (AAS) and AAS-Transfer (AAS-T) Degree Programs 2024-25

4 Direct Transfer Degrees (DTA/MRP) Programs 2024-25

32 Certificate Programs 2024-25

1 Bachelors of Science Degree Program 2024-25

252 Business and Industry Representatives Serving on BTC’s Program Advisory Committees 2024-25

Employees

71 Full-Time Tenure/Tenure Track Faculty (52) and  Faculty (19) Full-Time Temporary Faculty Fall 2023

55 Adjunct Part-Time Faculty Fall 2023

118 Employees Fall 2023

The following dashboard includes enrollment trends (broken down by demographic) and student achievement metrics, including retention, progress, completion, and job placement. 

External benchmarking is an important aspect of examining institutional performance. BTC benchmarks its performance against both regional and national peers. 

Regional Peers 

BTC has identified the following colleges as its regional peers: 

Bates Technical College

Clover Park Technical College 

Grays Harbor College 

Lake Washington Institute of Technology

Peninsula College

Renton Technical College

Skagit Valley College 

Spokane Community College 

Walla Walla Community College  

The college uses several dashboards provided by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) to benchmark its performance against its regional peers. These dashboards include metrics such as enrollment, student progress and completion, and employment. 

We have mapped the following SBCTC dashboards to our 2023-30 Strategic Plan and Key Performance Indicators for the purposes of regional external benchmarking.

• Enrollment: Quarterly and annual student headcounts and full-time equivalents (FTEs), including demographic breakdowns. 
• Strategic Enrollment: Quarterly and annual student headcounts and full-time equivalents (FTEs), with a focus on enrollment patterns of key demographic groups. 
• First Time Entering Student Outcomes (access limited to staff at SBCTC colleges): Examines outcomes such as credit milestones, retention, completion, transfer, and employment among students who are entering an SBCTC college for the first time.
• After College Status: Professional-Technical Programs and Apprenticeships: A substantial portion of BTC's students plan to enter the workforce after earning their BTC credential. As a result, job placement and job salary data are especially important to BTC. This dashboard shows the rate students go on to be employed or transfer to other non-community and technical colleges. 

The following are public-facing SBCTC dashboards with additional information that can be used for regional external benchmarking: 

• Faculty and Staff: Quarterly and annual faculty and staff headcounts and full-time equivalents (FTEs), including demographic breakdowns. 
• Student Achievement Initiative (SAI) 3.0: SAI is the points-based performance funding system for Washington State's community and technical colleges. Colleges receive points when students reach key academic momentum steps, such as first 15 credits, college math, and completion. A complementary SBCTC dashboard, the Student Achievement Initiative (SAI) 3.0 Points by Students Groups, includes the SAI point totals by student groups such as Basic Skills, Running Start, Workforce Funding programs, and Pell grant recipients. 
• Perkins V: BTC receives funding under the Carl D. Perkins Act, which requires the college to disaggregate student data by subgroup, special population, and program area for the three performance indicators. 

• Credentials Awarded: Student awards broken down by high school credential/GED certificate, workforce certificates, and degrees. 

National Peers

BTC has identified the following colleges as its national peers: 

Albany Technical College (GA)  

Cochise County Community College District (AZ)  

Eastern Maine Community College (ME)  

Moraine Park Technical College (WI) 

Texarkana College (TX)

BTC uses data provided by the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) to benchmark its performance against national peers. To receive federal student aid programs provided by the U.S. Department of Education, institutions are required to provide various metrics such as enrollment, completion, finances and tuition, and student financial aid. BTC maps IPEDS data to its 2023-30 Strategic Plan and Key Performance Indicators by downloading complete data files from the IPEDS website, but the IPEDS Compare Institutions Tool can also be used to pull metrics of interest. 

$10.9 Million Total Financial Aid Awards Disbursed in 2023-24

419 Total Number of Student Scholarships Awarded in 2023-24

92 Named Annual Scholarships Distributed in 2023-24

52 Endowed Scholarships Distributed in 2023-24

$957,310 Total Scholarship Monies Awarded in 2023-24