Job Corps & AmeriCorps

Have you considered serving in the corps? You may have more options than you think. Besides the military corps, you might be eligible for Job Corps or AmeriCorps. These federally supported programs help people who are looking either for direction in life or a way to help others.

Job Corps participants improve job skills and find vocational direction while living on Job Corps campuses. AmeriCorps volunteers serve U.S. communities by helping with local needs. Recent enrollment figures show about 66,000 Job Corps and 40,000 AmeriCorps participants.

Job Corps
Founded in 1964, Job Corps is a residential education and job training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. Its mission is to improve job opportunities for economically disadvantaged youth through academic, vocational, and life-skills training. Businesses, trade unions and associations, and State and Federal agencies recruit young people for Job Corps.

Most Job Corps participants live full time, year round at one of more than 118 Job Corps centers throughout the country, where they attend academic and vocational classes. Students spend between 6 months and 2 years there, depending on the training. Job Corps instructors enforce strict discipline and behavioral standards to insure an environment conducive to learning. Since its inception, Job Corps has helped 1.9 million youths around the country.

Qualifications & Program Highlights
Job Corps is open to people ages 16 to 24. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or nationals, legal permanent residents, or legally admitted aliens. They must be economically disadvantaged high school dropouts or high school graduates in need of employment-related education, training, or counseling. Applicants must also commit to being nonviolent and drug free.

Training is available in occupational areas such as computers, business and clerical, nursing, automotive mechanics and repair, and construction trades. Job Corps follows the school-to-work principle, which includes three techniques: job shadowing, connecting activities, and integration. Job shadowing exposes students to real-world jobs without requiring a long commitment. Connecting activities, such as training with equipment from job sites, help students connect to occupations. Finally, Job Corps tries to integrate all aspects of academic, residential, and job placement activities.

Based on the kind of training provided, Job Corps uses these techniques differently. In a Washington, DC-based Job Corps program, for example, participants study the home building trades. The participants begin as carpenters’ helpers, learning use of tools and basic techniques. With experience, helpers may advance to become carpenters. Eighteen-year-old Juan Rivera, of St. Croix, Virgin Islands, hopes to join an apprenticeship after graduating and to become a certified carpenter within 4 years. “I would definitely recommend this program to others,” he says.

AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps is a national community service program. Since its founding in 1992, more than 100,000 AmeriCorps volunteers have served in hundreds of activities nationwide.
AmeriCorps volunteers participate either full or part time. Full-time volunteers must perform at least 1,700 hours of community service each year; part-time volunteers must work 900 hours over 2 years. After completing their terms of service, AmeriCorps volunteers receive education awards to help finance vocational school or college or to repay student loans.

AmeriCorps is divided into 3 parts:

State and National Programs
State, national, and local nonprofit organizations sponsor, recruit, and train AmeriCorps volunteers for specific types of service.

National Civilian Conservation Corps (AmeriCorps*NCCC)
AmeriCorps*NCCC volunteers perform hands-on work and live on campuses throughout the United States. In addition to the community service required of all AmeriCorps volunteers, AmeriCorps*NCCC volunteers complete an additional 80 hours of independent service, such as helping with charity walk-a-thons or working in homeless shelters.

Volunteers In Service To America (AmeriCorps*VISTA)
AmeriCorps*VISTA participants work full time, year round for local public and private nonprofit organizations in disadvantaged communities.

Qualifications & Program Highlights
AmeriCorps applicants must be at least 17 years old; AmeriCorps*NCCC applicants cannot be over age 24, but there are no upper age limits for other AmeriCorps projects. All applicants must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. For most AmeriCorps* VISTA projects, preference is given to applicants with a college degree or at least 3 years of work experience.

AmeriCorps volunteers receive training in first aid and other basic skills needed to carry out their duties. Training varies according to the project. For example, in 3½ intense weeks of Ameri-Corps*NCCC basic training, volunteers learn teamwork, communication, responsibility, and other essential skills.

Most AmeriCorps volunteers serve with local and national organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, the American Red Cross, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and the Boys and Girls Clubs. These projects target community needs in four areas: education, public safety, human services, and the environment. Activities of AmeriCorps volunteers include tutoring and mentoring at-risk youth, fighting wildfires, providing emergency assistance to victims of natural disasters, and cleaning up rivers and streams.

Excerpted from an article titled “Job Corps, AmeriCorps, and Peace Corps: An Overview” by Kevin McCarron, Economist in the Office of Employment Projections, BLS. Reprinted from Occupational Outlook Quarterly, Fall 2000.