Job Corps gives hope and skills to young

Hope for a better future doesn't come easily. It took eight years of effort for the dream of a Job Corps center in St. Petersburg to become a reality. With Labor Secretary Elaine Chao looking on, local officials broke ground at a 17-acre Job Corps site, the first in Central Florida, that will boost the image of a down-on-its-luck area and give at least 300 young people a year to learn the job skills to turn their lives around.

St. Petersburg officials had hoped for a major employer to settle into the industrial area just west of Tropicana Field, creating jobs in a chronically under-employed section of the city. A Job Corps center isn't a bad second choice. At least 100 people will be employed full time to educate and care for the successful applicants, aged 16 to 24. When those young people complete their training, which can take from seven months to two years, they will be able to fill the growing number of vacancies throughout the Tampa Bay area in health care, information technology and skilled mechanical work.

The center, which will consist of nine buildings including dorms and classrooms, will certainly enliven the mostly forlorn Dome Industrial Park. Winning the Job Corps center in a nationwide competitive process took a cooperative effort among city and county officials and the state's congressional delegation. It is nice to see those entities working together for the betterment of the community.

Job Corps' transformative results are measured in individual accomplishment, and it claims to have one of the highest placement rates of all job training programs. But this also was a group effort that deserves the entire community's applause.

[Last modified February 22, 2008, 22:39:40]