“Education is about getting students into the workforce, it’s no longer about graduating them.”

That was the message for a group of business leaders, educators, public officials and others who gathered at a Career Pathways Partnerships meeting Thursday in Brookhaven.

The goal of the meeting at the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce was to better understand how business and industry can partner with educational institutions to help produce a better-educated workforce.

Julie Jordan, director of Mississippi State University’s Research and Curriculum Unit, helped facilitate the meeting that was spearheaded by Kenny Goza, with Career-Technical Education at Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

Too many students graduate high school and are either unprepared for college or unable to enter the workforce. The Partnerships aims to change that.

Two main goals emerged from the work session Thursday — becoming a work-ready community and sharing resources from businesses to schools and schools to businesses.

Ideally, middle and high schools would partner with community colleges and businesses to help create pathways for students to find success, whether that means heading to college or finding a job.

Too many graduates show up for job interviews poorly dressed and unprepared. Though they may have the necessary skills, they often can’t present themselves well enough to land a job. Attendees expressed this as one of their top concerns as employers.

At the state level, there are efforts to produce college and career ready students, but organizers stressed that the “definition of college and career ready” is specific to different regions of the state.

One of the goals of Thursday’s meeting was to determine what employers in Lincoln County need from the workforce.

“What ya’ll need here is different than what we need in the Golden Triangle where I live,” Jordan said.

About 50 individuals attended the meeting. The group will meet again in October.