About Yukon College

Yukon College is a community college in the Canadian territory of Yukon. Its main campus is in Whitehorse, Yukon. The college was founded in 1983, replacing the Yukon Vocational and Technical Training Centre.

In June 1988, the College moved its Whitehorse campus to its new facility at Yukon Place in the Takhini subdivision. Located on a bluff overlooking the river valley, the College commands a spectacular view of the river and the mountains to the east of the city.

The new campus was officially opened with a potlatch in October 1988, at which the College was given to the people of the Yukon. First Nations people of the territory were represented by Mrs. Angela Sidney and Mr. George Dawson. Mrs. Sidney, whose mother tongue was Tagish, was asked to give the College an Indian name. She began by describing how her father's people had built a killer whale house on the banks of a river, and then had to move it when they discovered that the house was too close to the river bank. Observing the similarity between the killer whale house and the main campus, she named the College Ayamdigut, "she got up and went" in Tlingit.