At the invitation of the then Bishop of Kollam diocese, the Salesians of Don Bosco began their ministry at Kottiyam in 1984 as an extension to the service they were already doing at Thope, Kollam among the poor fisherfolk. The institution began as an ITI, empowering thousands of youngsters of the area to master some trades and earn a living. The institution played a huge role in the economic uplift of the whole area as it helped young people to find jobs through the non-formal technical training they received here. The youth centre that was started in the campus provided a platform for young people to come together and helped them to bring out their talents in various fields. The institution came out with special scholarship programmes and helped hundreds of students of the area to go for higher education.
After two decades of service to the locality as non-formal technical training centre, realising the changing needs of the place, Don Bosco, Kottiyam shifted its focus to academic education by registering itself as a distance study centre under Mahatma Gandhi University. For more effective service, in the year 2013-14, Don Bosco affiliated itself to the University of Kerala as a self-financing College and started functioning as Don Bosco College, Kottiyam. Today Don Bosco College, Kottiyam offers 10 courses, close to thousand students and nearly 60 teaching and non-teaching staff. The College offers hostel facility for both boys and girls.
