History of the Booker Washington Institute

The Booker T. Washington Institute Inc. (BWI) was founded in 1929; the realization of a dream envisaged by the late Liberian President Charles D.B. King and made possible with support from the Phelps Stokes Foundation, of New York, U.S.A. and the Board of the Methodist Church in the U.S.A. The Institute is named in honor of the late African American Economic Right Leader, Booker T. Washington (1856-1915). The founding fathers’ overriding purpose for establishing the institution was the training of young middle level technicians and professionals to contribute to Liberia’s construction and development undertakings. The Institute owns and is situated on 1,086 acres of land donated by the tribal chiefs of the Kakata locale to President King for the establishment of the Institute’s campus facilities. Since its foundation, BWI has provided a significant part of the solution to the national shortage of trained middle level technicians, aspiring engineers, architects, agriculturists, business men and women and national leaders. As the global community transforms, we constantly undertake to transform the Institute to remain innovative and dynamic. We seek knowledge, opportunities and strive to improve continuously in order to maintain our position as Liberia’s model center of excellence and a world-class institution that provides education, training, professional development and consultancy solutions for the public and private sectors in technical, The Institute takes pride that many of our management and leadership areas. stakeholders and clients including our internship partners as well as employers of our trainees and graduates are extremely satisfied by the quality of our products and the practical, hands-on approach and real-world solutions that we provide in our education and training programs. Our overarching goal is to become a national reference point for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) as well as a regional and global hub for TVET known for its Integrity, Excellence, Discipline, Honesty, and Professional development.