KCTCS President Quarles shares his focus on preparing students for life after college

Kentucky Community and Technical College System President Ryan Quarles is in town for Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting, and on Wednesday, he spotlighted how the college system is working to prepare students for the workforce at a luncheon hosted at Hopkinsville Community College.

Quarles was selected to serve as the fourth president of KCTCS in 2023, and in this position, he oversees 16 state community colleges. Before his current role, he served as Kentucky’s 35th Agriculture Commissioner.

In the 2025-26 academic year, Quarles says over 24,400 students graduated, and over 46,000 credentials were awarded, setting a new record.

Quarles also shared that KCTCS’ graduation rates have increased greatly since the college system launched. In the early 2000’s, he says KCTCS ranked around 43rd for graduation rates among other community college systems across the country. Now KCTCS ranks fourth for graduation rates, and Quarles says the rate outpaces the national average by 18%.

Looking toward the future, Quarles says his top three focuses are to improve college access and affordability as well as addressing workforce needs. To help ensure students are job-ready, Quarles says twice a year, officials from each college and local employers meet to ensure their classes are upholding industry standards.

Quarles says the college system’s partnerships also benefit surrounding businesses and industries, because KCTCS colleges will often host training programs for those employees. Overall, he calls the partnerships a win-win because students get jobs and organizations gain needed employees.

Since taking office, Quarles says the college system has phased out over 240 programs, which has allowed them to reinvest those efforts into programs with higher workforce demands, such as healthcare careers.

The KCTCS Board of Regents will meet tomorrow at 8 a.m., and the meeting can be streamed on YouTube.