CB Job Corps to hold open house Wednesday

MOSES LAKE — The Columbia Basin Job Corps Center will hold an open house Wednesday, to show prospective students and their community what the program has to offer.

“We’ll have all our training programs on display,” said Community Liaison Susan Mann. “We … have our construction trades – carpenters, plasterers, cement masons and painters – and computer networking, office administration, culinary arts.”

Each program will have an interactive display to let attendees see what the program is all about.

“You can actually go home knowing how to build a brick wall, because you’ll be able to touch it, feel it and see it.”

Visitors will have the opportunity to tour the dormitories and training facilities. Lunch will be served as well, prepared by the Culinary Arts students.

Job Corps, established in 1964, is a free training program open to people 16-24 years old to train them for jobs in high-demand fields. Besides the job training, students are given housing, meals and medical care, and paid a biweekly allowance, according to the Job Corps website. Students who don’t have a high school diploma can earn one in the program, and Job Corps will help them find work after they graduate.

“Right out of the gate we have students leaving and making $22-$28 an hour to start, and then wages going up from that point,” Mann said.

In addition to Columbia Basin, two other Job Corps centers will be represented, displaying programs that they offer that Columbia Basin doesn’t. Curlew Job Corps Center, located in northeastern Washington, will have its welding and forestry programs on display, and Fort Simcoe Job Corps Center, about 40 miles outside Yakima, will showcase heavy equipment operation, truck driving and bricklaying training.

“Job Corps isn’t just what’s offered here (at Columbia Basin Job Corps),” Mann said. “We are a network of campuses. There are 121 Job Corps campuses with 100 training programs to choose from.”

Job Corps accepts applications all year long, so there are no deadlines, Mann said.

“It’s amazing how many times I run into people in our community who have lived in Moses Lake their entire lives and drive by our campus and have no idea what we do here at Job Corps,” Mann said. “This is their opportunity to come check us out, see who our students are and what kind of training programs are offered in their backyard.”

Columbia Basin Job Corps Open House

9 a.m.-2 p.m. May 6

6739 24th Avenue NE, Moses Lake

columbiabasin.jobcorps.gov