OTTUMWA —
The U.S. Secretary of Labor will be in Ottumwa today for a ceremony celebrating the opening of one of the country’s newest Job Corps Centers.
“This is a $24 million project that had an immediate impact in the community,” Secretary Hilda Solis said during a Courier phone interview Thursday.
That’s because many of the construction workers came from the local area — and there are now more than 100 permanent employees working there.
“You’re going to have a better work force [coming from] a population of young people squaring their lives away,” Solis said.
Some of the students are at-risk young people who may not have been on the path toward productive citizenship, she said. Now, they’re getting an education that will make them marketable to employers through education.
“Certification and licensure is something the president has been emphasizing [for up-and-coming workers] for the past three years,” Solis said. Those skilled workers are ones who “have a much higher rate of job placement: 84 percent placement rate.”
They gain more than a trade, she said. Job Corps trains students in social skills employers want: How to get along with others, how important it is to show up for work and the importance of attitude.
With the proximity of Indian Hills Community College, the secretary said, students don’t have to travel for college-level classes.
“I want to see them continue to educate themselves,” she said, adding that people who go on with their education tend to remain more employable.
The type of partnership with Indian Hills seen in Wapello County is rare, she said, but she likes it.
“That’s something we’d like to see at our other 124 centers.”
Job Corps is not a new program, Solis said, but after more than 40 years, it “continues to stand the test of time” because it works.
She’s met students who tell her that they heard about Job Corps through a graduate of the program, often a mom, an aunt or an uncle. More students means more workers with skills.
“We need everybody’s help in getting the message out about Job Corps,” Secretary Solis said.
It’s a message echoed by supporters of the program. We get a stronger nation when we have more skilled workers making good money and paying taxes than we would get with high school dropouts taking welfare.
Solis said she’d like to see more citizens bragging about the job training program, including local businesses, parents and members of the community advisory committee, who especially should be “amplifying” that message in the region.
As long as there is an Ottumwa Job Corps Center, that is. Job Corps supporters in Wapello County say Congress has been discussing “block grants.”
That means they’ll give each state a chunk of money for job training type efforts, then tell them to do what they want with it. That may include Job Corps funding and that may not include Job Corps funding.
“That, in my mind, is ridiculous,” said Solis. “We need to make sure the public is educated [about this] and the need to contact their member of Congress.”
For more information, visit www.jobcorps.gov.
Ottumwa
June 8, 2012
U.S. Secretary of Labor visits for Job Corps ceremony
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