The College of Technology Education, Kumasi was established in 1966 and started as Kumasi Technical Training Centre by the Government of Ghana with technical advice from the British Government. It operated initially as a department of Kumasi Polytechnic. In 1963, the constructional works for a permanent site started and were completed in early 1966.

Training programmes were therefore transferred from the Kumasi Polytechnic to the present site in September 1966. This resulted in the expansion of activities as well as change of name to Technical Teachers College (TTC) and later Kumasi Advanced Technical Teachers College (KATTC).

The College offered a certificate course in Education Studies, as well as courses in specialized areas in industrial arts and commerce. It became one of the seven Diploma Awarding Colleges when it was affiliated to the Institute of Education of the University of Cape Coast in 1977. This was as a result of the restructuring of Ghana Teacher Education programmes.

Following the educational reforms in 1992, the College became part of the University College of Education of Winneba (UCEW) in 1996. Integrated in 1996 as one of the constituent colleges of the then University College of Education of Winneba (UCEW), the College is the only tertiary institution mandated to train technical and vocational teachers for the Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector.  The College runs academic programmes leading to the award of diploma, degrees, masters, and doctoral degrees. COLTEK offers major programmes in business, technology and educational studies.