Good jobs require education, training and a foot in the door. Copiah-Lincoln Community College works to provide all three.

On Friday, Co-Lin will meet with Lincoln County employers to educate them about the career technical and workforce services provided by the college. Co-Lin Workforce Center Director Stephanie Sullivan said the college works hard to advocate for their students to local businesses.

“Part of what we do from a workforce perspective is we work directly with the WIN Job Center,” she said. “We work really hard to maintain relationships and develop relationships so (employers) will come to Co-Lin to approach our students about a job. We want our students to go to work for our local industries.”

The lunch is part of their Career, Technical, and Workforce Education Road Show, where the school travels to each of the counties in the school’s district. Sullivan said the lunch will take the form of a question and answer session with local employers about the benefits of getting involved with the Workforce Investment Network, and how workforce and career technical education can benefit them.

In addition to classes which offer industry standard certification in a broad range of subjects from Certified Nursing Assistant and CPR to welding and driving a fork lift, Co-Lin also offers courses which are tailored specifically to local businesses. This custom training can come in a couple of forms — either training the trainer or online classes.

“A lot of companies are going to online training because it’s hard to get people all in one space at the same time,” Sullivan said.

In Mississippi, about 70 percent of jobs are in manufacturing. Certified nursing assistants and welders are in particularly high demand in Lincoln County.

“Welding, HVAC, truck driving, CNA — you can go to any job posting anywhere and you’re going to find all of those jobs that are open,” she said. “Anything trade related is time well spent with education.”

The Industrial Development Fund will be providing lunch Friday. The lunch will be from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. at Hurst Review Services. All local business and industry leaders are encouraged to attend, though they will need to RSVP. Employers can contact Co-Lin at 601-643-8706.