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How AWS Investment is Powering Jobs, Lowering Costs, and Building Mississippi’s Future Workforce

Posted October 24, 2024 in Economic Development, News


Recruiting a company like Amazon Web Services to Mississippi not only creates job opportunities for residents, but long-term benefits for Entergy Mississippi customers as well. When Entergy Mississippi recruits industrial customers to the service area, existing customers benefit because those companies share in the cost of the power generation and infrastructure, which lowers the cost for other customers. In other words, an Entergy Mississippi customer could get a new, higher-paying job at AWS and, due to their new employer, also enjoy savings on their future power bills.

AWS investments will create at least 1,000 jobs and support new educational training programs throughout Mississippi. But Amazon is no stranger to the state. Since 2010, they have invested $2.3 billion throughout Mississippi, including five fulfillment and sortation centers, four delivery stations, five solar farms, a wind farm and a Whole Foods Market location. Additionally, 74 Mississippi schools receive STEM education and career exploration courses through Amazon Future Engineer, their global philanthropic education initiative. AWS’ historic announcement only stands to benefit residents and industries across the board.

Long-term benefits for Entergy Mississippi customers. Throughout its 100-year history, Entergy Mississippi has invested in generation plants that enable the company to produce power as efficiently as possible with the most advanced technology available at the time. Over the past 20 years, the company has lowered costs for customers by purchasing existing plants while retiring four less-efficient, original generating facilities. Plans for adding state-of-the-art generation that will benefit all customers are being developed.

Increased opportunities for skills training have already begun. Holmes Community College-Ridgeland, in collaboration with AWS and Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, announced a free two-day Fiber Option Fusion Splicing Certificate Course. Sumitomo Electric Lightwave is a proven leader in optical fiber technologies and solutions for data center, enterprise and communication networks. The course also allows attendees the opportunity to meet employers in the fiber business who are interested in recruiting motivated individuals for fusion splicing jobs.

New curriculum shapes the next generation of the growing tech workforce. Data science programs already exist in a number of Mississippi’s higher education institutions; however, these educational opportunities will likely increase, as evident at Belhaven University – the first college in Mississippi to partner with AWS to offer a new data science curriculum. The new Belhaven courses, launching in fall 2024, will include lectures and labs – positioning students for careers across tech industry jobs. Belhaven professors, guided by AWS experts, will receive training to ensure the curriculum meets industry demands.

 

Connect with the Entergy Mississippi team here.

 

 

Key Industries

Data Centers