Natchez and Adams County should be proud of a recent accomplishment — becoming the first community in the state to become certified as being “Work Ready.”

After months of much work on the part of the economic development team at Natchez Inc., partners at Alcorn State University and many other volunteers, our community has gone through an extensive process of testing the available workforce.

The goal is somewhat two-fold.

First, the certification process shows a snapshot of the broad array of skills the existing workforce in the community possesses.

That is important to have as potential business and industrial prospects look to the community for possible relocation. Quite simply, it lets them quickly gauge if their business could find good, local and qualified individuals to hire.

That’s important now.

But the second goal of the ACT Work Ready program is more long-range.

By having a snapshot of the existing workforce, economic developers, business leaders and educators can work together to locate potential gaps between what businesses and industries need and what the current workforce possesses.

With that knowledge, a plan can be crafted to raise the quality level of the workforce that in turn will make our community more attractive to business and industry.

The certification process is an important first step in growing our economy, and we are thankful for the hard work put into getting the goal achieved.