Governor tours facility, speaks with students

Northwest Mississippi Community College’s Concourse Workforce Training Center in Batesville hosted Mississippi’s Gov. Tate Reeves May 17.

Reeves and other state officials presented a $3.5 million check to fund the expansion of educational resources at the Concourse for technical job training that will help produce a more employable and educated workforce for Mississippi for years to come.

Funding was provided through AccelerateMS, the state’s first-ever workforce development office formed in 2021 and tasked with developing and deploying workforce strategies to connect individuals with transformative, high-paying careers.

Reeves and other state officials toured the facility and talked with Northwest instructors about what students are learning in the classroom. Reeves had the chance to meet some of these current
students and see the progress that Northwest is making.

“It’s about laying the foundation and building the infrastructure for what we know is going to be continued movement into this community and continued movement into north Mississippi,” Reeves said.

“These things don’t happen overnight. We know that this started five years ago, and today we’re sitting here and celebrating where we find ourselves.”

This funding will help advance programs such as robotics, automation and control engineering, mechatronics, and industrial maintenance.

Northwest’s president, Dr. Michael Heindl, said the Commercial Truck Driving program, which is currently and will continue to operate in Olive Branch, is expanding to Batesville.