As the Golden Triangle attracts new industry development, a need for more workers is following.
East Mississippi Community College President Scott Alsobrooks said that’s what makes programs like the recently developed Mississippi Department of Employment Security’s Navigator key to connecting those industries with area workers.
MDES officials, EMCC leaders and others gathered for a ribbon cutting for the program’s first Navigator Pod, an encased computer system that offers live meetings with MDES representatives, in the Workforce Investment Network Job Center at the Communiversity on Highway 82.
“People come in (to EMCC) and want to get a skill to get some of these jobs, and now it’ll go right to these jobs,” Alsobrooks said during a ribbon-cutting event Thursday at The Communiversity. “… I know that if we’re going to land more PACCARs and more steel mills and more aluminum mills and on and on and on, we have got to have a strong workforce. We can’t build a strong workforce without these partnerships.”
MDES’ Navigator program, launched in October 2025, is a digital access and virtual workforce tool that provides live services with MDES program specialists, like resumè building, practice interviews and job applications. The program also helps residents to locate local job openings and hiring events.
While the same services in the program are also offered at 28 MDES WIN Job Centers across the state, Navigator was created with the idea of assisting in underserved and hotbed areas by bringing representatives to job seekers through the computer system, said Darby Lowery, MDES Navigator program coordinator.
“The primary places we want to go next with it when it comes to expansion are those communities where we (do not) have a presence with a WIN Job Center,” Lowery said. “That’s where we’re trying to target first, and then we will go into communities that maybe already have … centers, but this could be like an extra hand (for them).”
The Navigator Pod at the Communiversity, which cost between $15,000 and $20,000, will serve as a test run before the system is considered for other areas of the state, Lowery said.
While MDES covered the cost of the Communiversity’s pod, Lowery expects partner agencies on future pods will help split the construction cost.
The WIN Job Center at EMCC services a six-county area, which includes Clay, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Lowndes, Webster and Choctaw. With that large of a service area, the center typically sees about 100 residents a week, which can sometimes lead to longer lines for employment services and assistance, said Nicholas Evans, northern regional director of workforce services for MDES.
But with the new Navigator Pod, applicants can be seen faster and in a more private space than in the general office, Evans said.
“It’s going to help because we only have one manager and I have three staff people, so sometimes we might have people waiting,” Evans said. “If the person is waiting … they might go to the pod. So it kind of helps with the flow. Also, we (can) use it like another person.”
Evans said he believes neighboring areas like Oktibbeha, Clay and Noxubee counties could benefit from having their own Navigator systems to allow for better access to more convenient assistance.
“We can place navigators anywhere,” Evans said. “It’s … a plug and play. If there’s a need in the community and a Navigator is needed, we can put one there. Because every county does not have a WIN Job Center, so there’d be opportunity for us to have a presence in those counties that we don’t have (currently).”
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