JOB CORPS GIVES TRAINING GROUND FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

The Job Corps has an image problem.

"We've brought it on ourselves," said Bobby Brooks, a Job Corp Center spokesman. "Because of the marketing techniques for the past few years, many people think of the Job Corps as a center for drug addicts and juveniles."

Brooks, an outreach specialist at the Clearfield, Utah, Job Corps Center, was in Cape Girardeau this week to explain Job Corps and its training programs to the local Job Service office, which accepts applications for the program.

Attending the meeting were Jackie B. Cecil, Job Service office manager; Ernest L. Seabaugh, Job Service employer services representative; Pat Amsden, Job Service representative; and the Rev. Stafford Moore, a Pentecostal associate minister.

The Job Corps offers training in more than 160 different jobs for both men and women said Brooks. It was designed and established in 1964 to provide vocational, academic and social skills for disadvantage youth, ages 16 through 21.

"Disadvantaged doesn't mean drugs and crime," said Brooks. "Anyone who can not afford to attend college is eligible for the Job Corps. We've had valedictorians and salutatorians in Job Corps programs."

How did the false image arise?

"Simple," said Brooks. "Many of media advertising brochures always showed a reformed drug victim telling how the Job Corps helped him or her get back into life's main stream.

"We are not a drug or alcohol treatment center," stressed Brooks. "We provide programs for any young person who happens to be from a home that is considered low income, or from an area with conditions that prevent a person from getting an education or job."

Currently more than 43,000 students, ages 16 to 22, are involved in Job Corps training programs in 107 centers throughout the United State.

The nearest center is located near Puxico. "But students from this area may opt to go to centers at St. Louis or Excelsior Springs, or the Clearfield Center in Utah," said Brooks.

"If a person wants to get into heavy equipment, they will go to Puxico. Most centers offer carpentry, clerical, computer and word processing, but only a few centers offer heavy equipment, and Puxico is one of those."

The Job Corps is not for everyone, said Brooks. "We lose a lot of students within the first 90 days they are in the program."

But the Corps has a 88.8 percent placement rate nationally, he said.

"We help place our students," he said. "At the Clearfield Center, we have a 94 percent placement rate. We've sent a lot of students to jobs paying $12 to $15 an hour to start.

Brooks describes the Job Corps as "the last great give-a-way," saying the program offers training in automotive trades, carpentry, bricklaying and other building trades, electrical and plumbing; welding, nursing, clerical, secretarial, and many others.

"Where else can you receive room and board, medical and dental care, education, and even clothing, free?" he said. "The Job Corps even pays a monthly allowance for learning."

While at one of the more than 100 centers nationwide, students live in dormitories. During the first two months, they receive an allowance of $20 every 15 days. The allowance then increases every 15 days to $30, and at six months the allowance is increased to $40.

Also, extra funds are placed in a separate account as a readjustment savings allowance. If a student stays in the Job Corps a year, they will receive an additional $1,200 check when they leave.

"We do have certain rules and regulations," said Brooks. "Students have to get up at a certain time, eat meals at a certain times, and be in GED or vocational training classes during the day.

"But, these are the same things you have to do if you have a job if you want to keep it," said Brooks. "If a student is a trouble-maker, gets into fights, uses or sells drugs, he or she will be dismissed."

Brooks describes a typical day at a Job Corp Center.

"The day starts at 6:30 a.m.," he said. "Students clean their room and breakfast is served from 7 to 8 a.m. Classes start at 8:15 a.m.

Students have an hour break for lunch, then return to classes until about 4 p.m. They have free time until about 5 p.m., when the evening meal is served. From 6 p.m. until lights out at 11 p.m., it's free time for various recreational, educational, or athletic activities at the center.

"We encourage recreation and athletic participation," he said. "The Corps has turned out a number of notable athletes. One of the best known is boxer George Foreman. Boxing is a big athletic vent at the most Corps centers.