The Community College of Allegheny County on Monday announced plans for a $40 million Workforce Training Center on campus and a $25 million investment in expanded workforce programming and system wide upgrades to existing educational facilities.

CCAC has so far raised $44 million for the Pioneering Pittsburgh’s Workforce Campaign. It includes a new three-story building along Ridge Avenue on the North Side across from Jones Hall and renovation of Chalfant Hall on the west edge of campus as a teachers’ resource center.

Representatives of Highmark Health and the PNC Foundation announced respective grants of $5 million and $2.5 million that were included in the $44 million total.

“That represents the largest capital campaign that CCAC has ever accomplished, but we’re not stopping there. We’re quite confident in the coming months that we are going to make our $65 million campaign,” Fred Thieman, who chairs the CCAC board of directors, said of the money raised and the goal.

Construction of the workforce center is expected to begin in June and take 18 to 20 months, according to CCAC President Quintin Bullock.

He said college officials used regional studies, data from the Department of Labor, information from employers and a report from the Allegheny Conference on Community Development to identify areas of high workforce demand and labor shortages over the next five to 10 years and determine what type of subjects the center would offer.

He said programming would include such fields as cyber security, information technology, autonomous and process technology, machine learning and advanced manufacturing and robotics. Bullock estimated the center would attract an additional 1,500 students.

“We anticipate seeing a very strong response to the new facility because of the expanded programming that we will offer and the uniqueness that it does lead to a credential that does land jobs and opportunities across the entire region,” he said.

Part of the Highmark grant will fund tuition for 15 North Side residents, who will enroll in the CCAC registered nursing program for the January semester and commit to working at the North Side’s Allegheny General Hospital as nurses for at least two years after graduation in 2022.

The RN program includes a retention coordinator, who will help students remain in school while juggling jobs and families, said Marge DiCuccio, AGH’s chief nursing officer.

She said the U.S. Labor Department anticipates a shortage of 1 million nurses by 2022 because of retirements and a doubling of the nation’s senior citizen population over the next four decades.

“The last half of the Baby Boomers are still actively employed and doing great work, but there will be a time when they will be retiring, and they’ll start needing health care,” DiCuccio said. “That’s when the real problem comes into play, because it’s at that time that the over-65 age group will really blossom in the United States, and we’re at a point where if we don’t prepare for that then there’s not going to be nurses who are going to be able to take care of those individuals.”

Correction: Construction of the workforce center is expected to begin in June. An earlier version of this story stated the incorrect month.

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