The tradition of excellence in education and career placement for Centura College began in 1969 in Norfolk, Virginia with Employment Services Inc., the parent corporation. Shortly thereafter, the offices were moved from the downtown financial district out to the suburbs where they remained until 1977. That year a new building was purchased in Virginia Beach to house the expanding group of companies.

Expansion continued at a rapid pace through the 1980s with the opening of new facilities throughout the country stretching from Connecticut to California and Washington state to Florida, always relating to the training and career placement of technical and professional personnel. In 1982, the School began independent operations on Euclid Road in Virginia Beach under its former name, The Electronic Institute of Technology. During this time, it was providing only high tech training in the field of electronics. In the mid 1980s, the corporation was selected by INC. magazine as 178th of the 500 fastest growing, privately held companies in America.

The main campus in Virginia Beach was relocated into larger facilities at Lynnhaven Parkway in 1986. During the next two years, it grew at that location by more than five hundred percent with the addition of new programs. A branch location was opened in the spring of 1987 in Norfolk on East Little Creek Road. This School immediately experienced very rapid growth as it attracted large numbers of students. In the fall of 1987, still another branch location was added on the Peninsula. The parent corporation moved in 1988 into a new six-story corporate office building. This mirrored glass building is located next to the YMCA along the Virginia Beach Expressway, which now houses most of Centura College’s online division staff and its corporate offices. Many of the other divisions of the corporation are centrally located within this architectural masterpiece. In 1989, because of the diversification into other fields of education, the name of the School was changed to Tidewater Tech. In 1991, both the Virginia Beach main campus and the Peninsula location again moved into more modern and expanded facilities. The newest branch was also opened in 1991 in Chesapeake. In the fall of 1998, the Norfolk location moved into its new, expanded facility in Norfolk on Military Highway.

In 2007, Tidewater Tech’s main campus was approved to expand from the associate degree level to the baccalaureate degree level. The school offers a B.S. in Business Management both residentially and online. Because of the rapid and significant growth of the online campus, the school adopted the new identity, Centura College, in April 2008. All of the twelve business colleges across the country will have adopted the Centura College name by the end of 2008, marking both the institution’s expanded academic standing and its cohesive identity for our students throughout the country. The Schools are dedicated to providing quality education in the important fields of business, computers, electronics, legal studies, criminal justice, dental studies, and medicine, which are the fastest growing career fields of today.