Perryville officially welcomed a new educational campus on Friday, April 5.
The Perryville Area Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting for the Ranken-Southeast campus, ushering in a new era for technical education in the area.
“This building is a perfect example of the mission of Ranken. What I mean by that is we know students, especially technical students learn best, by doing,” Ranken Technical College President Dan Pohl said.
The new Ranken facility is 25,000 square feet and will have programs such as, welding, diesel technology, Information technology, and HVAC, and has been in business since June 2023. Before the building was in place, Ranken operated out of building 10 on the campus of TG-Missouri.
Pohl said the Ranken campus has been welcomed by the businesses in town, especially those who have an interest in prospective graduates.
“It means so much more that our school is backed up at the relationships that we have with the businesses in the industry,” Pohl said. “We could not do what we do without those relationships, whether it’s Gilster Mary-Lee, Rollet Brothers, TG-Missouri, or Robinson Construction, and the list goes on. The education that our students learn is just a fraction here in this building. The rest is learn on the job and out in the community by actually doing the work.”
Perryville City Administrator Brent Buerck noted that it’s important to keep students close to home when they start their careers.
“It’s not easy being a small town today,” Buerck said. “We want to have a sense of place and be somewhere that kids want to come home to or never leave in the first place. Imagine our town without TG-Missouri, or Robinson Construction, or any one of the businesses that have been here for decades and multiple generations. We would fall over on ourselves. It is our job to tend to those things that will help this area grow and every once in a while we have an opportunity to add something new to the mix and Ranken will be a great addition.”
