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Commercial Truck Driving Training Program, CDL-A

Drive into new opportunities with a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL)! PSC will soon offer comprehensive CDL-A training at the Transportation, Warehouse and Logistics Center for individuals seeking an independent license without a contractual commitment. A CDL can help you reach your career goals with a variety of in-demand job opportunities to choose from.

COLLEGE CAMPUS AND FACILITIES

Prairie State College has grown in many ways –in size, in facilities, in breadth and depth of educational options, and in reputation. Prairie State College’s 130-acre campus is located at South Halsted Street and Vollmer Road in Chicago Heights, Illinois.

The main campus, located south of Vollmer Road, houses administrative offices, classrooms, laboratories, and student services facilities such as the bookstore, the Counseling and Academic Advising Center, the Student Success Center, Enrollment Services, and the Business Office. The main campus also is home to the Conference Center, a place for special events, meetings, conferences, and the site of the Christopher Art Gallery. The Adult Training and Outreach Center, where the College's English as a Second Language, Adult Basic Education, and GED classes are held, and the Illinois workNet Center are also located on the main campus.

The College’s north campus facilities, to the north of Vollmer Road, includes the Health/Tech Center and the Fitness Complex, a unique partnership among Prairie State College, the Chicago Heights Park District, and St. James Hospital and Health Centers.

COLLEGE PROFILE

Prairie State College is a two-year community college offering associate degrees, technical and career certificates, and adult, corporate, and continuing education. Prairie State College is one of the 39 community college districts (comprising 48 colleges) in Illinois. Prairie State College was the first Illinois community college to guarantee all credits will transfer to other Illinois colleges and universities, an assurance that has grown through the Illinois Articulation Initiative.

Type of institution: Two-year community college

Founded: 1957

Classes Began: 1958

Location: Chicago Heights, Illinois (approximately 30 miles south of downtown Chicago)

Degrees Granted: Prairie State College offers degrees and certificates in more than 100 fields of study.

Transfer Degrees: Associate in Arts (A.A.), Associate in Science (A.S.), Associate in Fine Arts (A.F.A.), Associate in Arts in Teaching (A.A.T.)

Career Programs: Prairie State College offers dozens of degrees and certificates that providing training for a good paying career.

Accreditation: The Higher Learning Commission

Enrollment: Annual unduplicated headcount enrollment for fiscal year 2017 - 9,000, 57 percent female, 43 percent male

Average Student Age: 24

Full-Time Instructional Faculty: 78

Student to Faculty Ratio: 15:1

College Campus: 130 acres

Number of Buildings: 13

Additional Sites: Matteson Area Center in Matteson, IL.

We also offer instruction and training on-site at area companies, schools and dozens of other locations throughout the Chicago south suburbs.

HISTORY OF PSC

Founded in 1957 as Bloom Township Junior College, Prairie State College’s first classes were held in 1958 in the basement of the First Christian Church. Originally established to offer only transfer liberal arts courses and occupational-technical courses, the College was reorganized in 1967 as a Class I junior college. With the combining of four high school districts into an enlarged territory, the College was renamed Prairie State College. In 1989, the Beecher Community High School district was added to District 515 by the Illinois Community College Board.

In 1968, the College was housed in 10 interim buildings on its campus at Halsted Street and Vollmer Road. Construction of permanent facilities began in the fall of 1972 and was completed for the 1975-76 academic year. A vocational-technical addition to the Main Campus Building, housing classrooms and laboratories, was dedicated in August 1979. A new Library, the Christopher Art Gallery and the Community Instructional Center (later renamed the Conference Center) opened in 1996. In the 1998, the Matteson Area Center opened as a convenient off-campus location to accommodate district residents.

The Health/Tech Center, home to the Dental Hygiene, Surgical Technology and Networking programs, opened in 2000. The Fitness Complex, a unique partnership among Prairie State College, the Chicago Heights Park District and St. James Hospital and Health Centers, opened in 2001. Ground was broken in May 2002 for the Adult Training and Outreach Center and Children’s Learning Center; the dedication ceremony was held two years later. The Adult Training and Outreach Center is one of only such buildings in the country dedicated to adult education.

COMMUNITIES SERVED

Prairie State College, Illinois Community College District 515, consists of the following communities: Beecher, Chicago Heights, Crete, Flossmoor, Ford Heights, Glenwood, Homewood, Matteson, Monee, Olympia Fields, Park Forest, Richton Park, Sauk Village, South Chicago Heights, Steger, University Park, portions of Country Club Hills, Hazel Crest, Lynwood, Tinley Park and adjacent unincorporated areas of Cook and Will counties. To verify your address is in district, call the office of Admissions & Enrollment Services at (708) 709-3514.

The high schools that feed into Prairie State College include: Beecher, Bloom, Bloom Trail, Crete-Monee, Homewood-Flossmoor, Rich Central, Rich East, Rich South, and Marian Catholic.