GED resources available

By Courtney Warren

With the growth of businesses in Canton, new jobs are becoming available. Jessica Nichols, with Central MS Planning & Development District and the Madison County WIN Job Center, spoke with the Canton Board of Aldermen about ways to ensure these jobs are filled by Cantonians. 

“Back in April, I spoke to you all about Amazon and the deficiencies we have in Canton with the respect to meeting their hiring requirements IE high school diplomas. Canton has a relatively low high school grad rate when you compare it to other areas. The grad rate is about 70-74 percent,” she explained. 

“Given that, a large number of our residents would not be able to apply for an Amazon job. 

   
I wanted to get the word out to people that they could obtain the jobs by getting their high school diploma or GED,” she said. 

Nichols plans to get out flyers and posters for resources, locations, and information about getting GED as well as information about expungement. 

Holmes Community College offers Adult Basic Education classes in several locations in its district. These classes are open to the public for those who have not completed high school or wish to increase their functioning level to enter college, training, or the job market. The Adult Education and GED Department encourages all adults that are interested to become involved in one of its programs.

According to the Amazon website, the basic qualifications for a lead fulfillment associate are a high school or equivalent diploma at least two years of work experience or a current blue badge Amazon employee, and at least one year of experience working with computers and Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel).

Preferred qualifications are a completed Bachelor’s Degree, at least one year of leadership experience directly managing others, at least one year working in a like environment (manufacturing/distribution/warehousing/large retail), experience with performance metrics and lean process improvement, and excellent written and verbal communication and interpersonal skills to coach, train and assist team members.