Northeast Alabama Community College (NACC) will hold a grand opening celebration on October 3, 2024, for the new Workforce Development Skills Training Center on campus. The program will begin at 10:30 a.m. with NACC, local, and state officials presiding. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey will also be in attendance. There will be a breakfast at 9:30. The new building is located between the Industrial Systems Technology Center and the Tom Bevill Lyceum.

We are pleased to announce these special guests will be attending the ceremony: Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter, Senator Steve Livingston, Representative Mike Kirkland, Alabama Community College System Chancellor Jimmy Baker, and others. The public is invited to attend this special ceremony.

"We are extremely excited about this event," stated NACC President Dr. David Campbell.  "This is 55,000 square feet 30 million dollar technology project that will upgrade the workforce and economy in North Alabama.  We at Northeast offer many career tech programs now, but we will expand them and offer even more with this facility.  I can't thank our Chancellor, Mr. Jimmy Baker, and our Legislators, particularly Speaker of the House of Representatives Nathaniel Ledbetter, Alabama State Senator Steve Livingston, and Representative Mike Kirkland for their support of the financing for this building. Speaker Ledbetter and our legislative delegation were instrumental in securing the state funding for this project. Come out and celebrate with us," Campbell concluded.

NACC’s workforce center plans include state-of-the-art laboratory space for programs centered on industrial systems maintenance, industrial electronics, precision machining, design and 3D modelling, and building construction craft training. In addition, the center will have adaptable space flexible to interchange up to six programs as the local workforce needs.

In August of 2022, Senator Livingston helped secure an additional one million dollar grant for the purchase of equipment of NACC’s new Workforce Development Center. The appropriation was secured by Senator Steve Livingston and was supported by Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter.

NACC would like to thank all involved in making this project a reality. "Speaker Ledbetter, Chancellor Baker, and I have been working on this project since 2018. It is so rewarding to see all our hard work come true. Thanks also to our ACCS Board of Trustees, especially Board Member Dus Rogers who represents our area," stated Dr. David Campbell.

“The addition of the Workforce Development Center is a game changer for generations to come in our region,” said Kerry Wright, Dean of Workforce Development and Skills Training at NACC. He continued, “The value this building brings to NACC far exceeds the cost of it. Countless individuals over the next 50 years and beyond will benefit from the expansion that is happening now, and lives will be changed because of it. The space gained from this project will enable the College to expand the capacity of existing high demand workforce programs and continue its focus on developing new pathways that align with regional workforce needs.”

Goodwin Mills Cawood is the architecture firm leading the project, and Cooper Construction are the primary contractors.

The NACC Workforce Development Center, along with other projects across all community colleges, were identified as a needed project by local communities through the ACCS ASPIRE 2030 initiative. The initiative launched in May 2020 as the ACCS’s strategic planning process for use of the PSCA funds for capital improvements.