LAUREL BUSINESS INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES NAME CHANGE TO LAUREL TECHNICAL INSTITUTE
UNIONTOWN, P.A., April 10, 2025 – After 40 years, Laurel Business Institute has modernized its name to Laurel Technical Institute. ‘That’s right, LBI is now LTI,’’ said Doug Decker, COO for the Laurel Institutes. The naming convention for LTI, Laurel Technical Institute, has been part of the Laurel school system since 2009, presiding over their locations in Northwestern Pennsylvania.
The original Uniontown location has been Laurel Business Institute since its inception in 1985. At that time, the school housed mainly business-related programs, including secretarial studies, accounting, data processing, and others. However, over the years, as technology and the community’s needs in the workforce have evolved, so did Laurel. The school rapidly expanded into computer technology, medical and allied health programs which now includes nursing, cosmetology, skilled trades and many more. Therefore, adopting the name of its sister school made sense for the organization to better align its name with the program offerings.
The impetus for the change after 40 years, is the addition of a new satellite location of the Uniontown campus in Penn Township located in Northern Westmoreland county. Nancy Decker, President and CEO of the Laurel schools, said that ‘The timing was right with the launch of our new location to bring all of our Pennsylvania schools together under one name.’ Laurel is in the process this spring of updating signage and facades around their three building, 4-acre, 80,000-square-foot campus located downtown. The school plans to hold an open house event later this spring to display their continued commitment to and investment in Fayette County. Later this year, Laurel plans to hold a showcase to celebrate the school’s 40th anniversary and recognize alumni and the employer community’s longtime support of the organization.
Founded in 1985 as Laurel Business Institute is a private, post-secondary specialized associate degree-granting, Career and Technical Education (CTE) provider with four locations throughout Western Pennsylvania and North Central West Virginia. Laurel is nationally accredited as ‘School of Distinction’ by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, Laurel has over 500 current students and 3,800 alumni across approximately 20 different AST/B Degree and Diploma programs. These programs are focused on high-demand occupational classifications such as skilled trades, health care, information technology, business, cosmetology, and early childhood education.