The institution was founded in 1929 with assistance from Americans and is named after an American Educator Booker T. Washington. It is located east of the capital Monrovia and is situated on a 1,086 acres rural campus in Kakata, Margibi County and has an enrollment of approximately 2,000 students. For over eighty-five years of existence, BWI has made enormous contribution to the human resource development of Liberia.
The Institution currently runs two programs, the Regular Vocational and Technical Program and the Accelerated Vocational Training Program. These programs offer courses in Agriculture, Automotive, Electricity, Electronics, Building Trade (Carpentry, Drafting, Masonry, and Plumbing), Business (Secretarial Science, Accounting), and Domestic Science. Our mission is to produce a new generation of ethical and entrepreneurial technocrats, managers and leaders through participatory hands-on approach to human resource development. We are now working in the direction of transitioning from a Vocational Institute to a full-fledged Technical College.