CMPDD’s Southcentral Mississippi Works and Holmes Community College have partnered with Nissan to prepare workers for their newly planned electrical vehicle (EV) line in Canton, MS. The 2,000 existing employees will need to be retrained and upskilled to meet the new, state-of-the-art production processes. AccelerateMS has provided a $1.5 million grant to assist in this training project.
Nissan will retool the plant to support production of all-new Nissan and Infiniti EV vehicles, scheduled to begin in 2025. The Canton facility will become a center for U.S. EV production. The automaker is in the middle of an $18 billion program to expand its electric vehicle fleet through 2030. The company aims to have electric vehicles make up 40% of its U.S. sales by then.
Southcentral Mississippi Works and Holmes Community College will be assisting the company with prescreening of new employees, internships, apprenticeships, work studies, and various customized training programs. As part of the “train-the-trainer” program, existing Nissan employees will be able to travel to other plants in Japan and Mexico to learn first-hand about existing EV production processes. These employees will then return to Canton and train fellow employees about the new processes.
“For nearly two (2) decades, Mississippians have kept our state at the forefront of the world’s automotive industry,” said Gov. Tate Reeves. “The announcement that Nissan Canton is shifting some production to EVs further positions Mississippi as a leader in this crucial economic sector. We are a top state for automotive leaders, and this significant investment by Nissan in the Canton facility lets the world know that we are open for business and our workforce is ready to take on these in-demand jobs of the future.”
