Job Corps

The Job Corps Model

Job Corps was modeled after the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which provided room, board, and jobs to unemployed young adults. It is a voluntary residential program for those who meet eligibility requirements: age 16–24, low income, legal U.S. resident, and a high school dropout, and/or in need of additional education and training to gain employment. Through year-round residential classroom- and work-based learning, Job Corps participants earn a high school diploma or GED and receive career training in one of more than 100 fields, such as business, health, construction, [Page 493]technology, mechanics, and culinary arts. Participants also get health and dental care, a biweekly basic living stipend, and career counseling and transitional support for a year following graduation. Participants may enroll for up to 2 years, but the average length of stay for graduates is 8 months.

To date, Job Corps has served over 2 million youth and established 122 centers located throughout the United States. Although administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, more than 75% of Job Corps centers are operated by private companies that have been awarded contracts through a competitive bidding process. The rest are operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and American Indian nations.

Development

While the core components of the Job Corps model—academic and job training in a primarily residential setting for low-income at-risk youth—have remained constant, the program has expanded and evolved over time. Since its inception, Job Corps has more than tripled the number of youth served annually, reaching 62,000 youth in 2007. The demographics of Job Corps participants have changed as well; Job Corps now serves a larger percentage of older students (22–24 years) and female students.

Programmatically, Job Corps has had to refine its areas of focus over time to reflect a changing economy and workforce. Occupational fields that were applicable in the 1970s are no longer high-growth sectors of industry, for example. It has also had to change its curricula and teaching practices to address different student needs; interpersonal skills, for instance, have emerged as an important set of skills for Job Corps participants to learn. Job Corps has also implemented a range of accountability policies and procedures to hold students more accountable for their behavior and centers more accountable for performance. Zero tolerance policies for drugs, alcohol, and violence, for example, were implemented in the 1980s and have generally been perceived, via satisfaction surveys, as improving the climate of centers.

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