Meridian Community College, Compass launch 14-week data center training program

Meridian Community College and data center developer Compass will launch a 14-week Mechanical, Electrical and Information Technology Data Center Pathway Program to prepare workers for a $10 billion, eight-data-center campus being built in the Meridian area, the college and company said.

The program, which the partners said will be Mississippi’s first of its kind, is modeled after a Compass program launched in Texas and will provide hands-on training for roles that support data center operations, the college and Compass said.

Compass said it is providing full scholarships for the first cohort. The training is intended to ready students for mechanical roles focused on cooling, enterprise-grade electrical positions and information technology jobs that keep data centers operational, the partners said.

Compass also cited broader labor needs, saying the U.S. will require about 6 million additional skilled workers by 2030 and that roughly 500,000 such roles go unfilled each year, according to the company.

Meridian Community College said it will host a career fair at the Riley Workforce Development Center from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on July 31 and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Aug. 1 to connect program participants with employers.

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