USDA under secretary touts Job Corps

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Job Corps is a place where good ideas come together. That is why my recent visit with approximately 300 energetic young people at a USDA Job Corps Center in Idaho was so encouraging. In Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers, there is rare alignment of real life solutions to the challenges of youth unemployment, an uncertain economy, and the nation’s need for a greener, energy-efficient future. Like nothing else, Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers work for young people and for America.

The USDA Forest Service runs the nation’s Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers: like all Job Corps Centers, the Civilian Conservation Centers train economically-challenged young people for meaningful careers.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the Civilian Conservation Centers will place a new emphasis on green jobs, such as natural resources work, and the greening of traditional trades, such as construction and electrical work.

The Civilian Conservation Centers will make this alignment of challenges and solutions work through a new green curriculum that gears students for greener applications of new skills. Graduates will know how to wire buildings for maximum energy efficiency and build energy-efficient homes. They will know how to build renewable energy facilities and improve landscapes stressed by climate change. Job Corps-trained young people will revitalize local economies, especially in rural communities across America. They will provide a youthful boost to the nation’s goals of energy independence and conservation.

The phrase win-win comes to mind.

Civilian Conservation Centers aren’t only about construction and natural resource jobs. I met bright students training in many other important trades. One example is culinary arts: even in this, Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers will prepare students for new kinds of green jobs. The students I met talked to me about where the food they prepared was grown. They visited the farms and know the growers. They told me how important it is to use food produced locally. Not only is fresh better nutritionally, they told me, it is greener, because local foods do not have to travel as far. How many chefs do you know who consider the carbon costs of the foods they prepare? My guess is you will soon know more.

The USDA Forest Service has a 45-year history with Job Corps, and I understand why they are so proud of it. Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers are building on the Forest Service’s relationship to the original Civilian Conservation Corps, established by President Franklin Roosevelt at a time not unlike this one, when unemployment was high, and the nation needed new direction. Today’s Civilian Conservation Centers are preparing more than 6,000 young people at a time in 28 centers around the country for their own new direction, a place in America’s growing green-collar economy and a path out of poverty.

We at USDA know a good thing, and we are teaming up to bolster Job Corps success. USDA agencies are stepping up new internship and job opportunities so these fine young people can emerge a step ahead in an economy to which they really didn’t have access before. It’s an economy that needs them.

During my visit, a businessman told me Job Corps is the real deal, a solid source for skilled workers. I know what I saw last week, and I am convinced all of us will benefit from the entry of thousands of skilled young people into an economy that needs to re-adjust its relationship to the environment and grow in a green direction. The success of Job Corps Civilian Conservation Centers’ new direction should encourage us all.

The Columbia Basin Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center is located in Moses Lake. Columbia Basin Job Corps Civilian Conservation Center serves 290 students. USDA operates 28 CCCs across 18 states with a capacity of 6,200 students. For more information, visit recruiting.jobcorps.gov/en/home.aspx