It began life as a dependency of the War Ministry, and its students were often criminal youth arrested by the police or the army.

In 1889, the institution represented Uruguay in the Paris International Exposition, during the inauguration of the Eiffel Tower, and that same year it began to be administrated by the National Charity and Public Beneficence Commission.

On September 9 of 1942, after the approval of Law 10.225 the National School of Arts and Trades was superseded by the recently founded University of Work in Uruguay, which would occupy the same building and inherit the active students.

The Work University of Uruguay offers multiple teaching levels: Basic Cycle (middle school), Medium Professional Education, Medium Technological Education, Tertiary Level Technicature (in collaboration with the University of the Republic (Uruguay)), Technological Engineering, Diplomates and short trade courses.

Its official nomenclature is now General Direction of Technical-Professional Education but it maintains its original acronym UTU.