Efforts are underway to better prepare local students for the workplace of tomorrow.

As part of this, the MSU Riley Center, the Lauderdale County Schools and Meridian Public Schools are teaming up with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It's one of only fourteen nationwide.

Teachers will be taught new, innovative ways to incorporate the arts into assignments.

The Kennedy Center's director of Partnerships in Education, Barbara Shepherd, said in order for areas to be economically stable in the future, the arts must be incorporated into school curriculum today.

"Routine work is going to be shipped to other countries. It's going to be automated. So, we need people that are going to have jobs who know how to be creative, innovative, work with teams and this is a way in which the arts really change what students learn and can make a tremendous difference," Shepherd said.

This partnership is set to last two years.