The British colonial government assigned to Ombe four major roles. The first was to train technicians to meet the technical personnel needs of the colonial government and subsequently, the needs of an emerging independent polity, namely Southern Cameroons. The second was to create a competent artisanal class capable of maintaining basic public infrastructure. The third was to contribute to efforts to endow Africans with the education necessary to appreciate government functioning. Finally, the institution was charged with the task of contributing to the creation of an indigenous middle-class in an evolving colonial polity.​

In the process, British colonial authorities deliberately restricted the Ombe curriculum to trade courses. This was a calculated strategy by these authorities to avoid the grave error they believed they had committed in their colonial project in India. Here, the British colonial government had embarked on an ambitious general education programme, which produced unintended results. They had, some in their ranks believed, created a native intellectual class that effectively challenged colonial policies in that country. Accordingly, British colonial authorities had come to view any native intellectual class as a viable threat to their authority and power.

Ombe functioned uninterrupted as a trade centre from 1952 to 1961. This is when the institution abruptly shut its doors due to the sudden withdrawal of its British teaching and administrative staff. The withdrawal was an outcome of the demise of British colonial rule in the territory. October 1961 witnessed the amalgamation of British Southern Cameroons-cum-West Cameroon and FrenchCameroun-cum-East Cameroun that gave birth to the Federal Republic of Cameroon.​

In 1962, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) resuscitated GTC Ombe and assumed full responsibility over its administration. This was part of the agency’s efforts to develop the quality of technicians necessary for West Cameroon’s technological sustenance in the 20th century and beyond. It would be recalled that this meticulous formatting and transformation of young minds was occurring in West Cameroon that, like almost all African polities, was emerging from nearly a century of brutal European colonialism of the economically exploitative variant.

Geo-socially, Ombe was literally a gated enclave complete with round-theclock foot patrol security services tucked amidst villages of squalid and dilapidated buildings of improvised materials that manifested conspicuous signs of physical and functional obsolescence. In its heydays, the enclave comprised Senior and Junior Staff Quarters of finely engineered residential structures, a suite of generously equipped offices, classroom and workshop blocks served by paved and well-aligned streets. These facilities were richly punctuated by a system of carefully manicured lawns.

The contrasts between Ombe and localities in both its proximate and distant vicinities in those early days could not have been sharper! One of the pioneer U.S. Peace Corps volunteer teachers at the institution vividly captured the contrast in the following words. As you drive up the road from Ombe into Mutengene, you see the thatched roof houses, the people living their simple existence. When you think back to the electronic courses you are teaching, to sons and brothers of those people, [sic]. Here is the leap to the 20th century that historians are talking about displayed in rather sharp relief (Quoted by Amin, 1992),​

The resuscitated GTC Ombe had at its helm in the capacity of principal, an American, Mr. Sheldon Cole. He had been a functionary of the USAID in Southern Cameroons-cum-West Cameroon since 1960. Cole was recommended for this post by Mr. E.D. Quan, at the time, the Acting Permanent Secretary of the West Cameroon Ministry of Education and Welfare. Cole doubled as the Trades Education Adviser to the West Cameroon Ministry of Education. To facilitate his job as Principal of Ombe, Mr. Cole requested for seven (7) volunteers but was given only four (4), namely Edward Greene, Edward Douglass, Robert Christensen, and Michael Romaine.

Notwithstanding, Mr. Cole, an avid teacher and developmentalist, was avowedly committed to catapult Ombe to the zenith of technical education in Cameroon. To succeed in this connection, he embarked on a program to revamp and broaden the scope of Ombe’s course offerings. Accordingly, some general education courses, including English, French, and Civics were added to the curriculum. Thus, with the involvement of the US, and Peace Corps working under the auspices of Mr. Sheldon Cole, GTC Ombe had effectively embarked on a journey to becoming a comprehensive technical college as opposed to simply a trade centre. One of the most notable achievements of this first crop of American Peace Corps volunteers was the development and installation of a closed-circuit television system at the institution. The brainchild of electronic engineer/instructor, Edward Douglas, this was the first such system to go functional in West Cameroon. For a little more than a decade since GTC was resuscitated in 1962, it served as the citadel for training technicians in West Cameroon. Its students were recruited from the best and brightest graduates of primary schools throughout this territory. A pass in the highest echelon, List A, of the Common Entrance Examination to post-primary schools was a prerequisite to participate in the oral interview for admission to the institution. Students were admitted on an academic yearly basis.

“Mr. Cole, an avid teacher and developmentalist, was avowedly committed to catapult Ombe to the zenith of technical education in Cameroon”.

At the end of the four-year technical training program, students wrote the City and Guilds of London Institute Intermediate Craft Examination, and the City and Guilds of London Institute General Course Examination. The former comprised questions on theories and principles of different technical specialties and the actual practice of these specialties, while the former included specialty examination questions in four specific subjects, viz., Mathematics, Science, Processes and Materials, and Technical Drawing.

Technical specialties at Ombe enrolled on a bi-academic yearly basis. Thus, no specialty had First- and Second-Year students; instead, a specialty, say Building Construction, would have First and Third-Year, and Second- and Fourth-Year students during any given Academic Year. This was a cleverly engineered strategy to ensure that the institution never graduated students from any specialty during two successive academic years. This served to avoid a glut of unemployed graduates from any specific specialty during any given year.

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