‘The most important issue in Mississippi is the workforce’ | Gov. Reeves discusses workforce development in Miss.

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Gov. Tate Reeves and Accelerate Mississippi Executive Director, Ryan Miller, will discuss the state’s efforts to better organize and develop workforce development strategy.

Gov. Reeves signed Senate Bill 2564 which created the Office of Workforce Development (AcclerateMS) and Miller was hired as the inaugural Executive Director on April 12, 2021.

Reeves states that this could be one of the most important and proactive initiatives to help grow the economy.

“I refuse to allow anything less than accomplishing Mississippi’s full potential.”

Reeves believes that the a strongly developed workforce will help make Mississippi “the best place to live.”

“It’s imperative that we recognize what has worked well in the past, but also what hasn’t worked in the past.”

Reeves stated that preliminary findings show that there is success at the micro level, but has room for improvement on the macro level.

In 2019, when Reeves campaigned for governor, he highlighted that Mississippi needed to take a regional approach to workforce development. As a result of this, Reeves and his office have decided to divide Mississippi into eight regions or “ecosystems.”

According to Reeves, this is so that each ecosystem can be assessed by population, geography, infrastructure and connectivity.

Reeves states that this could be one of the most important and proactive initiatives to help grow the economy.

Miller also explained that the eight regions will be tasked with assessing three different pillars: customizable training, horizon thinking, and workforce triage.

“The most important issue in Mississippi is the workforce,” explained Miller.

“We are never done improving workforce development in Mississippi.”

Reeves was joined by Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College president Mary Graham, to discuss how this program can positively impact students as well.

Graham says that AccelerateMS funded the diesel tech program at MGCCC. This is the first program to be awarded money from Miller’s office.

The office, now in its 6th month, will be working to coordinate resources and efforts towards higher value, higher impact training to help more Mississippians find meaningful careers.