The Board of Trustees of Schenectady County Community College (SCCC) last night approved an expansion of College classrooms to the new Center City Building located in downtown Schenectady right across the street from Proctors. The new YMCA at Center City is already home to SCCC’s fitness and basketball programs.

The College plans to lease space in Center City for its new Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) program funded with a recently awarded $11.2 million federal health care workforce training grant. In addition, SCCC plans to use the new classroom space to offer courses in criminal justice, business and computing. Both for-credit and non-credit coursework will be offered at the new site.

The Center City location offers the College – which grew to over 6000 students in Fall 2010, its largest population ever – not only additional space, but the opportunity to offer more classes during peak times as well as nights and weekends.

“SCCC needs to expand its classroom space as its student population grows along with its academic programs,” said Denise Murphy McGraw, Chair of SCCC’s Board of Trustees. “SCCC is a vital resource for workforce training in our region, and this expansion will allow more people access to an education that will help them become very marketable to employers.”

“As Schenectady County Community College grows its facilities and offerings, we are excited to locate training services and classrooms at Center City, where we already have a presence at the YMCA with our athletics offerings and shared programs with Proctors,” said Dr. Quintin Bullock, President of SCCC. “New, state-of-the-art classroom space for our nursing and workforce training programs will help us further integrate into the community while offering flexible scheduling for more learners.”

Under its new federal grant, SCCC welcomed its first CNA class this past week. Currently, classes are being held on the sixth floor, but space is limited and the program is expected to grow dramatically. SCCC was one of just four institutions in New York State and one of 32 in the nation to receive the job training funds in October 2010. SCCC received the largest grant award in New York State and the 11th largest grant in the nation. The grant award is part of a $320 million initiative under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Affordable Care Act (ACA) to strengthen the health care workforce in the United States.

Contact:
Darren Johnson
(518) 381-1320