Ashworth College history

Ashworth College evolved from a humble start in 1987, when we were a family-owned school offering a single distance education course in real estate appraisal. The course became so popular that our founders knew they had uncovered a need for high quality, career-focused distance education and Professional Career Development Institute (PCDI) was born.

A pioneer in distance education

Enrollments rapidly increased as new distance education courses were added to the catalog. In 1996, SACS-accredited online high school James Madison High School became a part of our PCDI family. In 2000, we introduced online associate degree programs, followed by bachelor's degree programs in 2007. Then, to reflect our breadth of offerings, as well as our leadership role in online education, all programs merged to become part of Ashworth College.

Today, Ashworth College is proud of our more than 300,000 alumni around the world. We are the first accredited online distance education program in Georgia to hold a Delta Epsilon Tau National Honor Society charter. More than 2,000 of our Ashworth College and James Madison High School graduates have been inducted into this international honor society.

After decades of providing quality distance education, Ashworth College proudly celebrated our 30th anniversary on March 17, 2017!