Staff Writer
LIMESTONE – On Nov 2, Loring Job Corps and Northern Maine Community College (NMCC) announced that the Advanced Career Training (ACT) program, which is currently helping some Job Corps graduates achieve an associates degree through NMCC, will be extended to all 122 Job Corps sites in the United States.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Xiomara Colon-Torres, student government secretary at the Loring Job Corps is one student who plans on taking advantage of the Advanced Career Training program through the Northern Maine Community College.
The ACT program has allowed exceptional Loring Job Corps students who have received a recommendation from their counselor or instructors to remain with Job Corps for up to three years while beginning an associates degree through NMCC. The impact of this agreement is that students from Job Corps Centers across the country will be able to extend their time with Job Corps to further their education.
“There are Job Corps Centers that don’t have partnerships or are not in proximity to a community college that would allow students to be involved in this type of program.” said Dottie Martin, director of learning at Job Corps, “Through the extension of our ACT program, we’re going to be able to encourage students from other job corps centers to apply at Loring to become students at NMCC.”
According to Jason Parent, director of development and college relations at NMCC, Job Corps and NMCC have had an advanced career training partnership between the two institutions for a number of years.
Job Corps and NMCC have been working together on the curriculums for students participating in the ACT program to ensure that course work is not duplicated.
“We think it’s a great way to transition from high school to college; some individuals may be uncertain about whether or not they can do college work and so this is a great way to get started,” said Bill Egeler, dean of students at NMCC.
“Our hope is that it would attract students to our campus through Job Corp sites not only here in Loring, but from other locations,” said Timothy Crowley, president of NMCC. “The ultimate success of this will be measured in the number of students that we can bring through a successful community college program from Job Corps.”
Job corps usually has about six to eight students that participate in the program.
“We’d like to at least double that in the beginning,” said Martin, “and then hopefully, we’ll continue to see it grow”
Egeler stated how critical he feels that it is to have a college education at this point in time:
“The statistics would bear out that the more education you’ve obtained, the less likely you are to be unemployed during an economic downturn.” Egeler said, “The statistics also bear out that as an individuals educational attainment increases, their income increases. It’s been batted about recently that the value of a bachelors degree is well over a million dollars over someone with a high school diploma over the course of their earnings lifetime, so it’s very important if you want to do well economically in these times to have a college education.”
Though this announcement means that students from across the country may participate in the ACT program, local residents are encouraged to apply.
“It’s important to note that the program isn’t limited to people outside of the area,” said Egeler, “It’s important for local individuals to know that the support that’s provided through the Job Corps is available to local citizens.”
Though neither institution has needed to add additional staff to accommodate the possible new students, recruitment for Loring Job Corps will be changing.
“It’s going to be a totally new recruitment strategy for us,” said Martin, “currently, we only recruit within the Boston/New York/New England region and so this will give us an opportunity to recruit nationwide.”
“We’ve talked about the economic situation and how students need to understand that the more education they have, their better chances of not only getting a job, but keeping a job," said Martin. “that’s the importance of the extra training.”
