Highly Educated Talent Pool

The Oak Ridge Schools were born in the shadow of the Manhattan Project in 1943. Like the project that brought together the nation’s greatest minds for a common goal, the school system set the bar high for educational excellence from the beginning. Over 75% of our passionate, award-winning teachers hold master’s degrees. Oak Ridge Schools offer a challenging STEM curriculum with a deliberate focus on collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity to ensure success for every student.

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Education Attained

• Less Than 9th Grade: 70 (2.30%)
• 9th to 12th Grade: 1,162 - (5.70%)
• High School Graduate: 4,877 - (23.92%)
• Some College: 4,340 - (21.28%)
• Associates Degree: 1,783 - (8.74%)
• Bachelors Degree: 3,921 - (19.23%)
• Graduate Degree: 3,838  - (18.82%)

Overview of Oak Ridge High School

Oak Ridge High School is ranked 35th within Tennessee. Students have the opportunity to take Advanced Placement coursework and exams. The AP participation rate at Oak Ridge High School is 43%. The total minority enrollment is 30%. Oak Ridge High School is the only high school in Oak Ridge.

Oak Ridge High School serves as a model for the district’s commitment to preparing every student for college, career and life success, offering an impressive number of AP, Post AP and Dual Credit courses alongside work-based learning and industry certification-earning opportunities.

An innovative standout among the robust College, Career & Technical Education offerings is Wildcat Manufacturing, a year-long capstone course that functions as a student-run enterprise, where students fulfill paid contracts from local companies, overseeing all aspects of the business from design, cost, estimation, planning, manufacturing, delivery, and billing. Led by a retired nuclear physicist with over 30 years of research experience at the Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), the machines used in Dr. Buckner’s class are a far cry from the shop classes of the past. Instead, students utilize cutting edge, best-in-class equipment including water jet and laser cutting technologies, multiple 3D printers and several three- and five-axis mills.

Other impressive programs include aviation—where students can graduate with their pilot license and are often flying planes before they’re able to drive cars; automotive—which includes a pipeline partnership with Mercedes that trains students to master the inner workings of the luxury automobile; and advanced STEM Engineering & Machining—a hands-on program run by Todd Livesay, who previously helped middle school students build and launch a satellite, RamSat, into space.  

School Ranking:

• Best School Districts in Tennessee - #5 of 121

Oak Ridge, Tennessee - Degrees by the Numbers

Degrees have been growing at institutions near Oak Ridge, Tennessee over the past 5 years. In 2020, students completed 10,421 degree programs at colleges and universities near Oak Ridge. That was an increase of 20% over completions reported in 2016.

source: https://www.franklin.edu/colleges-near/tennessee/oak-ridge

Private Colleges near Oak Ridge:

• Franklin University
• South College
• Fountainhead College of Technology
• Huntington University of Health Sciences
• Maryville College
• Johnson University
• Hiwassee College

Public Colleges near Oak Ridge:

• The University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Community Colleges Near Oak Ridge:

• Pellissippi State Community College
• Roane State Community College

Tennessee College of Applied Technology - Harriman and Knoxville

Job Breakdown

The most common employment sectors for those who live in Oak Ridge, TN, are Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services (1,964 people), Health Care & Social Assistance (1,892 people), and Retail Trade (1,414 people).

• # of Jobs (2021):    269,578
• % of Change (20-21):  +0.5% (National Avg: +0.8%)
• Median Earnings:   $19.23/hr
• National Avg: $16.88/hr
• Annual Openings:   29,468
• 15 Local Higher Education Institutions Produce over 40,683 program completions each year

  - Oak Ridge, TN Workforce Analysis 2019

Most Common Jobs

The most common jobs held by residents of Oak Ridge, TN, by number of employees, are Office & Administrative Support Occupations (1,547 people), Management Occupations (1,307 people), and Sales & Related Occupations (1,035 people).

Most Specialized

Compared to other places, Oak Ridge, TN has an unusually high number of residents working in Life, Physical, & Social Science Occupations (4.78 times higher than expected), Architecture & Engineering Occupations (2.05 times higher), and Community & Social Service Occupations (1.24 times higher).

source: https://datausa.io/profile/geo/oak-ridge-tn#top_occ_num_emp

Customized Training

The mission of Tennessee College of Applied Technology-Harriman is to provide high quality technical training to prepare individuals for lasting and rewarding  employment, lifelong learning, and to upgrade skills of employed workers. For information on their specialized training programs, click here.

We offer courses, connections and educational partnerships that bring you industry-focused training, professional development and individual education—skills for an evolving, competitive marketplace.

Our programs include healthcare, safety, manufacturing, business training, small business and personal development classes and other customized training.

For Information on the Workforce Development Programs, click here. For information on the Mechatronics program, click here.

Spend your training dollars wisely by investing in what you need, when you need it! Pellissippi State’s Workforce and Community Development is your one-stop provider for training, offering an array of creative workplace solutions that generate real results. Take advantage of our years of educational expertise to advance your employees, your company and your business.

Upcoming Classes

We offer a variety of classes throughout the year, including supervision and leadership development, Excel, Quickbooks, welding, NFPA 70E, FANUC robotics and more. If you need a class not currently listed in our schedule, let us know! Private and customized classes can be scheduled by request.

For more information, contact Tim Wilson at trwilson2@pstcc.edu or 865.694.6666.

The University of Tennessee Center for Professional Education & Lifelong Learning offers a wide variety of courses and certificate programs to prepare you for a career change or add new skills applicable for your existing position. Our Professional Education programs are offered both in-person and online. Additionally, if you want to learn something new just for fun or to begin a new hobby, you’ll want to enroll in one of our popular Personal Enrichment courses.