NATCHEZ — Copiah-Lincoln Community College’s Natchez campus will begin a new career-ready program this fall thanks to a new, $650,000 grant split between the college’s Natchez and Wesson campuses.

The Mississippi Community College Board awarded three grants to Co-Lin, each providing new Career and Technical Education programs.

The emergency medical technology paramedic program is scheduled to hold its first classes in the fall of 2018, wherein students will get classroom and hands-on experience in the field of emergency medicine.

Monica Morrison, assistant dean of Co-Lin’s Career, Technical, and Workforce Education, said the program would graduate students with all the training necessary to step directly into the emergency medical field.

Morrison said the program will both provide high-skill, high-paying jobs for men and women in the Miss-Lou, but will also address a shortage of emergency medical professionals in the area.

“Southwest Mississippi, especially, has a huge shortage of EMTs,” Morrison said. “Having the program at Co-Lin will meet employment needs here instead of having to go out of state to hire.”

Morrison said Co-Lin worked with many local EMT services to bring the grant to Natchez, and that students will pair up with these medical professionals during their program.

“The students will get clinical experiences with local professionals,” she said. “You will graduate ready to work.”

Morrison said local medical professionals should know that Co-Lin is still looking for qualified instructors for the program.

She said applications would be posted online soon concerning the available positions.

On the Wesson campus, the grant will fund a new electrical technology program, and the Simpson County Center will receive funds for a Automation and Control Technology program.

In a statement about the upcoming programs, Dean of Career, Technical, and Workforce Education Jackie Martin said the programs would provide middle-skill positions, which constitute approximately 60 percent of Mississippi’s workforce.

The grants will only fund the initialization of each course; it is up to each college to sustain the program in years to come.