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ETA News Release: [05/12/2004]
Contact Name: Lorette Post
Phone Number: (202) 693-3984

Six Job Corps Students to Visit UK Youth Training Programs

WASHINGTON—Six Job Corps students have been selected to travel abroad to learn more about the United Kingdom’s Work and Pensions Office JobCentre Plus program for youth. The tour, which runs from May 10 through May 22, is part of the New Deal Student Exchange Program and follows a similar visit here by UK JobCentre Plus students who spent time at three Job Corps Centers around the nation.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for these young people to experience successful employment strategies in each others’ countries,” said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. “The exchange will allow the students to see the best practices and learn how other countries prepare their youth for opportunities in today’s global economy.”

From April 24 through May 8, United Kingdom Jobcentre Plus students traveled in pairs to participating U.S. Job Corps Centers, shadowing their student counterparts. That hospitality will be reciprocated over the next two weeks as the American students familiarize themselves with UK employment practices.

The six student ambassadors chosen to represent their Job Corps classmates hail from three Centers—Travis Ward and Charis Willis from Maryland’s Woodstock Job Corps Center; Greg Fischer and Jo’Von Taylor from St. Paul, Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Job Corps Center, and Salley Walls and April Wolfe of Sedro-Woolley, Washington’s Cascades Job Corps Center.

“These students will be in an extraordinary position during this inaugural exchange to gather a wealth of information and acquire some hands-on experience with premier youth employment programs on both sides of the Atlantic,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco. “Our shared hope is that both contingents will return home with new ideas and a renewed commitment to ready themselves for the challenges and opportunities of the 21^st Century workforce.”

Job Corps is the nation’s oldest and largest federally funded job training and education program for economically disadvantaged youth ages 16 through 24. Established in 1964, Job Corps has trained and educated more than two million young people to date, serving nearly 65,000 young adults each year. Students receive hands-on training in more than 100 occupational areas, including healthcare, construction and related fields, culinary arts and business and technology-related industries. For additional information about Job Corps, visit jobcorps.dol.gov.

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