Job Corps
Connecting Training to Real-World Jobs

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 aged 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.

Job Corps follows the school-to-work principle, which includes three techniques: job shadowing, connecting activities, and integration.

Advantages & Disadvantages

The most important indicator of success for a Job Corps graduate is meaningful employment in a satisfying occupation. Other tangible benefits for Job Corps participation include a biweekly stipend (currently $25 to $34) during training, a one-time payment ($250) for getting a job within 6 months of completing a Job Corps program, another payment ($100) for landing a job in the trade studied at Job Corps, a bonus ($250) for earning a high school equivalency during the program, and a completion bonus.

Participants also receive room and board, health care, transportation to and from job centers, and job placement assistance and counseling. Those who complete basic training have a chance to get advanced training. And Job Corps graduates are more likely to earn more than their counterparts who were eligible for the program but did not participate, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Job Corps Study.

Also important, however, are the intangible benefits of Job Corps participation. Alexandria, Virginia-based Milton Kendall, Eastern Regional Coordinator for the Operating Engineers’ Union and a Job Corps graduate, characterizes his instructors as "tough but fair…pushy but thorough” and says he developed social skills in Job Corps that continue to help him. Two-time Job Corps graduate LaDonna Tramble, of Denver, Colorado, praises her Job Corps experiences. She credits Job Corps training with providing her both the occupational and social skills needed to become a clerical supervisor in the Denver Police Department.

But Job Corps training can be difficult, and prospective trainees should be ready to work hard. Some participants may drop out because they are unable to adjust to the rigors of Job Corps training. Others become discouraged as they encounter difficulties learning their new trade. Despite the training and support Job Corps participants enjoy, graduates must remember that they will start their jobs at the entry level. When speaking to graduating Job Corps classes, Kendall makes it clear to the graduates that they should not expect to rise to the top immediately. Nevertheless, he adds, "the road to success is always under construction.”

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.