---
title: Getting a Data Center Job in Mississippi Now Takes 234 Hours of Training
description: Meridian Community College's 15-week data center course runs 234 instruction hours and takes students with no degree. Compass Datacenters is paying the tuition.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
updated: 2026-07-31T17:23:42.883Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/meridian-data-center-technician-training-234-hours
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/compass-mei-data-center-training-77224.webp
categories: HR & Recruiting
content_type: News
region: United States
publication: Sovereign Magazine
schema_type: Article
---

Meridian Community College starts teaching data center work this fall on a course that takes 15 weeks, runs to 234 instruction hours and asks entrants for no degree and no prior experience. Compass Datacenters, which is putting an estimated $10 billion into a campus in the same east Mississippi city, is funding full tuition for the first class.

The course is called the MEI Data Center Pathway Program, for the mechanical, electrical and information technology systems a data center runs on. Compass founded it in Red Oak, Texas, with Texas State Technical College, and has since put it into TSTC's Waco and Abilene campuses. Meridian is the first in Mississippi. A two-day launch event and career fair runs July 31 and August 1 at the college's Riley Workforce Development Center, and the first class begins in the fall.

Ten companies are supporting the opening cohort: RK Industries, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Vertiv, Allied Universal, Convergint, Rosendin, Rubicon, Salute and Shermco. Compass says the course is open to any company that needs technicians, including its own customers, suppliers, service providers and competitors, all of whom may recruit graduates.

## Electrical Systems Take 80 of the 234 Hours

The college publishes the [full breakdown of the 234 hours](https://www.meridiancc.edu/mei/index.html). Electrical systems take 80 of them and mechanical systems 48. Motor control systems take 40, cable wiring 24, safety certifications 18, principles of HVAC 16 and leadership 8.

That mix maps onto the jobs at the other end. The college names critical power technician, electrical commissioning technician, generator technician and EPMS monitoring technician on the electrical side; HVAC chiller technician, pump and water systems specialist, mechanical commissioning technician and BMS controls technician on the mechanical side; and fiber optic technician among the IT and facility roles. It describes them as part of a growing "new collar" workforce that values technical skill over four-year degrees.

Compass puts the industry's annual shortfall at more than 500,000 skilled trade professionals. Its own workforce page cites the Uptime Institute's 2022 global survey, in which 53 percent of data center organizations reported difficulty finding qualified candidates, and a JLL forecast of 14 percent annual growth in [data center demand](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/data-center-abs-master-trust-520-million) through 2030.

> "The data center industry doesn't run on technology alone. It runs on people."
> — Sudhir Kalra, Fellow and Chief Advisor for Data Center Operations, Compass Datacenters

## The Texas Version Placed 90 Percent of Its Graduates Within a Month

The Mississippi cohort has not started, so the only results so far come from Texas. Compass reports that 90 percent of graduates there found a job within a month of finishing, and that the program is now in its second year and waitlisted. Graduates have gone to CBRE, Schneider Electric, Siemens and Salute, many of them, Compass says, into roles paying 30 to 50 percent above local median salaries. CompTIA puts the median annual wage for a data center technician at $70,500, citing the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Compass has not published a permanent headcount for the Meridian campus. It projects more than 400 careers at full build-out of Red Oak alone, a figure chief executive Chris Crosby gave in congressional testimony in January, and 11,000 multi-year jobs across its active campuses by the end of 2027.

## Counties With a First Large Data Center Added 4 to 5 Percent More Private Jobs

Independent evidence on what a campus does to local employment arrived in May. Dany Bahar and Greg Wright matched roughly 770 US data center facilities to county-level Bureau of Labor Statistics employment and wage data from 2003 to 2024, covering 93 counties that received their first large data center between 2008 and 2024 against about 3,000 counties that never got one, and [published the results through Brookings](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/new-evidence-on-data-center-employment-effects/).

Total private employment in the counties that received one rose 4 to 5 percent over five to six years. Construction employment rose 11 percent and information sector employment, meaning IT services, telecommunications and software, rose 22 percent. Wages rose 3 to 4 percent for both existing workers and new hires, with no significant increase in home prices. In a typical county of 98,000 workers, the authors calculate that as roughly 2,000 to 4,000 additional jobs after six years, depending on the type of facility.

Scale changes the answer. Counties with a single data center saw modest gains in total employment and no significant information sector growth. Counties with four or more facilities saw information sector employment rise 23 percent.

"When we build in a community, we commit to it for the long haul," Crosby said. "We aren't just building data centers in Meridian. We're helping create a workforce that will support them for decades to come."

Meridian Community College has been teaching since 1937 and serves more than 3,500 students a year across more than 40 career and technical programs. "Partnering with Compass Datacenters lets us meet a national industry need with local talent that gives East Mississippians a direct path to career-building jobs," said its president, Dr. Tom Huebner.

Find out more at [compassdatacenters.com](https://www.compassdatacenters.com/).

## FAQ

**Q: How long is data center technician training?**
The course at Meridian Community College runs 15 weeks and 234 instruction hours, split across mechanical systems, electrical systems, motor control, cable wiring, safety certifications, HVAC and leadership.

**Q: Do you need a degree to be a data center technician?**
Not for this route. The MEI Data Center Pathway Program takes entrants with no degree and no prior experience, and the college describes the jobs it leads to as part of a "new collar" workforce that values technical skill over four-year degrees.

**Q: What does a data center technician earn?**
CompTIA puts the median annual wage at $70,500, citing the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Compass says many graduates of its Texas program stepped into roles paying 30 to 50 percent above local median salaries.

**Q: Do data centers create permanent local jobs?**
The Brookings research found total private employment up 4 to 5 percent over five to six years in counties that received their first large data center, which works out at roughly 2,000 to 4,000 additional jobs in a county of 98,000 workers. The effect depends on scale: counties with four or more facilities saw information sector employment rise 23 percent, while counties with a single facility saw no significant information sector growth.