RegionIVCDSSPlan.doc

June 2, 2006

OFFICE OF JOB CORPS

REGION IV

Career Development Services System Plan June C. Boswell, Regional Director

Steve Fuller, Division Chief, Program Operations

Vickie Hicks-Butler, Division Chief, Program Support

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Guiding Principles

Interpretations and Priorities

Outreach and Admissions

Career Preparation Period

Career Development Period

Counseling

Social Skills Training

Academic Instruction

Vocational Training

Work-Based Learning

Residential Living and Recreation

Student Leadership Training and Student Government Student Code of Conduct and Incentive System

Career Management Team

Projection of Completers

Career Transition Period

Initial Placement

Post-Center Support Services

Employer Feedback

Center Effectiveness

Center Career Development Services System Plans

INTRODUCTION

Since its inception in 1964, Job Corps has prepared students to compete successfully in an ever-changing workplace. However, the manner in which we have done so has evolved with society, with the economy, and with our authorizing legislation. The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998, our current authorizing legislation, changed the way we work with employers, communities, state and local workforce development systems, and how we provide services to our students while on center and after graduation. It did not, however, change our mission. We continue to be a career development program – preparing students with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and abilities needed to compete successfully in an emerging global market – while working with employers to develop applicable training that will meet the employer’s needs.

In order to address the requirements of WIA, Job Corps developed the Career Development Services System (CDSS) model. Under CDSS, Job Corps centers provide programs of education and career technical training, work experience, recreational activities, career success which include social and employability skills, career and personal counseling, and job placement before leaving center. We also provide post center assistance to graduates in obtaining meaningful unsubsidized employment, with support and follow-up services to ensure long-term attachment to the workforce. Outreach activity that embraces employers and their expertise are infused throughout center activity.

Employers are visible on centers and considered full partners in the success of our students and graduates, from participation in outreach activities to supporting training and ultimately employment.

The policies and requirements for all aspects of the Job Corps program as a Career Development Services System (CDSS) are set forth in the Job Corps Policy and Requirements Handbook (PRH). This regional CDSS plan complements the Policy and Requirements Handbook (PRH) by describing the interpretations, priorities and initiatives that are unique to Region IV. The CDSS Plan is supplemented by a series of Regional Directives and Regional Information Notices which provide specific instructions on procedural and technical matters.

Region IV currently encompasses 24 Job Corps centers and 6 independent outreach and admissions and career transition services providers throughout 11 states, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana, Arkansas, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming - serving 9,600 students at any one time. Information about the Dallas Region and its centers can be found at http://dallasregion.jobcorps.gov/.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

The purpose of the Job Corps program is to prepare students with a competitive set of skills and credentials to enter the workforce, maintain employment and responsibly use their leisure time. This is accomplished through career technical education and training, designed and conducted in partnership with national training contractors, employers, communities and other partners to address employer needs of today and prepare our students for the future. In essence we “begin with the end in mind” Seven Habits of Highly Successful People, Stephen Covey. It begins in outreach and admissions and ends in career transition services with successful, gainful, long term placement of our graduates.

There are three major drivers of the program: education credentials (a GED or high school diploma), vocational certification, and the achievement of career success standards. Certification for our vocational training and accreditation for our educational programs are high priorities. Formal apprenticeship training continues to be a major focus for post-center training. Training and education go hand in hand when preparing students for gainful employment. It is equally important that contractors, employers, families and students understand that Job Corps is a career development services system and is administered through a holistic approach. The program will always be responsive to the young person who says, “I want to do something different with my life”, however it must be accompanied with a personal commitment to begin a journey that will end with the above-stated outcomes: education credentials, vocation credentials and achievement of career success standards.

We must fully engage all of our partners to successfully prepare our students for career success. These include employers, local workforce boards, One-stops and youth councils, national training contractors, employer associations, community-based organizations, public schools and institutions of higher education, OA/CTS and center operators, McNeil and WICs, local police and fire departments, libraries, community recreation programs, and so many others. These partners can be major players in helping our students to grow, and they can bring incredible resources to our programs. Since we value their role and involvement, we request all centers post the names and logos of their employers and other partners at the entrance to the center and in the relevant classrooms and shops so that students, staff, and visitors are aware of these partnerships. Center councils are the primary way in which they provide invaluable guidance and expertise in the area of training, employment, social development, and staff development opportunities. There are three councils on which they can serve: Industry Councils, Academic Advisory Councils and Community Relations Councils.

Members of a center’s Industry Council (IC) bridge the gulf between training and employers by keeping us focused on the training that employment demands. In addition to employers that represent the local economy and the major industries present in the communities to which your graduates go, ICs should also include representatives of unions and/or national training contractors with whom you do business. Academic Advisory Councils (AACs) provide feedback on the applied academic component and its coordination within the holistic structure, and help identify program and staff development resources. They also assist the center in forging matriculation agreements with institutions of higher education and provide guidance in the school accreditation process. Hence, AACs should include representation from a broad spectrum of educationally-relevant organizations with whom you partner, with whom you should partner, and who provide oversight to state and local programs. The Community Relations Council (CRC) continues to be the center’s ambassador to the community by coordinating the students’ and staff’s community service work and other contributions the center makes to the larger community as well as contributions that the community makes to the center. It is therefore important that the CRC include broad representation of the community-based organizations and local elected officials (or their staff). Of course, all of this must be conducted in accord with the requirements in PRH 1.1.

Beginning with the end in mind dictates that career transition services be infused throughout the student’s experience on center. Beginning with OA and continuing through CPP, CDP, and CTP, students need to routinely experience training that is set in or simulates employment situations. In the admissions phase, counselors must understand that students must not only be eligible but also suitable and committed to completing training, getting their education and securing employment.

Health and wellness staff members play a particularly important role beginning in the admissions process and continuing throughout CDSS. Emphasis on health and wellness rather than sickness and medicine must begin up front in order to produce healthy employees. Similarly, more and more employers are hiring only drug-free applicants. There is no “hire first and clean up later approach.” Therefore, again beginning with the end in mind and mirroring industry standards, the emphasis must be on coming into the program drug-free. We expect trainee employee assistance program (TEAP) and mental health professionals to be involved in the pre-arrival process to help identify behaviors and train admissions staff on current information, especially signs and symptoms of which to be aware in the intake process. Historical information shows that 45% of those who test positive upon entrance will leave the program before reaching the desired outcomes. It is therefore an expectation that professional involvement begin at the earliest opportunity, that the TEAP and mental health programs be proactive, intervention-oriented and wellness-oriented, and not passive programs to which students are referred once they are on center.

Counselors are the integrating, coordinating and supporting resource for students and staff. They provide case management, personal and career counseling, mentoring, guidance, parental contact, agency contact and more. They are the hub of the wheel, the center of all that goes on around students. Counselors must be armed with the dual set of skills needed to function in the sometimes polarizing roles of ministering to personal needs while keeping the focus and direction on what is needed to produce a credentialed and socially developed graduate.

All instructors are expected to be involved with students and employers. Instructors and work-based learning (WBL) staff visit employers’ places of business to better understand employer needs and actively participate in job development. Center operators are strongly encouraged to find ways to make externships available to academic and vocational instructors. While such immersion in the workplaces for which they are preparing students might most easily be scheduled during summer or winter breaks, we encourage centers and center operators to maximize such opportunities and provide follow-up through which the staff member applies what they have learned in their area of responsibility and shares it with their colleagues and students. When this happens, there is an increased level of communication between academics and vocations – and between WBL and CTS.

Throughout the whole process, the student is guided by their career management team (CMT). The CMT, as required and defined in PRH 2.8 R.1, facilitates the holistic concept of several disciplines contributing their expertise and assessment of the student’s progress and/or concerns as opposed to only one individual assuming responsibility for all. The transition coordinator (TC) works closely with center staff and as a member of the student’s CMT, and is a critical reviewer of the student’s readiness to transition to CDP. The TC and career advisor work closely with the student during the career transition period on center to identify and obtain employment, support services such as child care, housing and transportation and post-center placement assistance. A smooth transition from center to the world of work and independence is vital.

Region IV’s top priority is to develop a career development services system that provides a holistic approach to individual development while providing students with the necessary skills, training and education to support their entry into the workforce. A critical element to the system’s success is the infusion of Career Success Standards throughout the student’s experience in Job Corps. All staff must model the Career Success Standards, mentor students about them, and monitor students’ behavior and development of them. This expectation has been elaborated in the Career Success Standards National Training Conference and accompanying resources (see Job Corps Information Notice No. 05-26, February 13, 2006). Requirements are included in PRH Change Notice 05-16. Additional information and tools are available at the Career Success Standards Web site (http://jccdrc.jobcorps.gov/CSS. Bottom line – career success is a top priority in everything we do in Job Corps. It spells success for our graduates and a competitive workforce for employers and for our local and national economies.

The region recognizes that a successful, cutting edge and continuously improving career development services system requires successful, cutting edge and continuously improving staff development. We therefore pay particular attention to the staff training plans submitted by centers annually, and to how staff training and professional development is addressed in proposals to operate Job Corps centers. We continuously seek to identify staff training needs and help centers to meet those when appropriate and feasible through regional training conferences. We also fully support – and expect our centers and operators to fully support – staff training and professional development opportunities and initiatives offered by the National Office of Job Corps.

INTERPRETATIONS AND PRIORITIES

Region IV has adopted the following interpretations and priorities to guide all of our decisions and actions. We expect these interpretations and priorities will also guide the decisions and actions of our Job Corps centers and other entities providing services to students in the region.

· Employability literally means, “the ability to be employed.” Therefore, everything we do in Job Corps to prepare students for employment is employability training. To be more precise, we believe that the ability to be employed requires three specific sets of skills: career success skills and knowledge, as reflected in the Career Success Standards, academic skills and career technical skills. We also believe that, of these skill sets, the career success skills are the most important. As employers have repeatedly told us, it doesn’t matter how many diplomas they have or how technically competent they are, if students do not show up on time and ready for work, take directions, follow instructions, and get along with co-workers and customers, they will not be able to remain employed.

· While Job Corps has historically described itself as an open entry/open exit, self-paced program, this does not mean students come to Job Corps and leave Job Corps as they please. We obviously determine their eligibility and suitability for participation in the program and manage their arrival at a Job Corps center. We are equally responsible for managing their progress through the program and their separation from the program. We call this process “managing the flow.” This is merely responsible program management. We are measured on outcome and performance. We must therefore be involved and proactive in managing our performance. PRH Chapter 5, Appendix 501 lays out the Outcome Measurement System. PRH Chapter 6 (section 6.1 and Exhibit 6-1) lays out the student accountability system. These are guiding policies that must be implemented with the highest integrity. We believe, know and have experienced unequivocally that high performance can be obtained by adhering to the letter of the law and will not allow any deviation from the system to masquerade as performance outcome. Data integrity is not negotiable. Data integrity and managing the flow are not mutually exclusive or opposing concepts and both are critical to successfully operating the Job Corps program. Both Data Integrity and Managing the Flow have therefore been and will continue to be topics of discussion and presentation at regional managers’ meetings and elsewhere.

· Our students are active partners in their career development – not passive recipients of it. This means they must be given the opportunity to actively participate in planning and implementing their personal career development plan from the day they arrive on center to the day they exit the program. Students must be empowered to take ownership of and responsibility for their own success. This approach embodies the Job Corps proverb, “Every time we provide a service to - or make a decision for - our students, we deprive them of the opportunity to learn by doing it themselves.” They must be armed with lifelong learning skills that they can employ once they leave the program. Planning and setting goals and achieving them through the personal career development plan (PCDP) is one of the most valuable lessons they can learn.

· Every student has the right to feel safe at all times while on a Job Corps center and to always be treated with dignity and respect. Would you send your child to your Job Corps center if you were not there to look out for them? Do you consider your center to be safe? Do students feel the center is safe? If students do not feel safe, they cannot learn and certainly will not stay. Center staff and students are responsible for creating a safe environment and a culture of dignity, respect and professionalism – regardless of the center’s location, size, or age. That is the standard against which we measure center culture. Center staff and student leaders are critical in guiding and supporting students to make the right choices. Role modeling and exposing students to the many and varied opportunities to improve their living environment, their lives and their futures is a prime responsibility of all center staff and student leaders. What students get out of Job Corps will ultimately depend on what they put into it, however, staff and student leaders are keepers of the culture and must therefore be primed to model the same principles to which we hold students accountable and to which employers hold employees accountable.

· Most students do not come from households or backgrounds where they have seen and been a part of success in mainstream terms. They have not experienced working parents and working, aspiring and accomplished friends and neighbors. Many will be first time achievers and will find that they are held to a different level of respect, accountability and responsibility than other members of their household. Often, this creates conflict and they must develop the skills and confidence to handle this difference responsibly. This is critical to the foundation they build to integrate their independent living skills. We must provide a culture in which they experience growth and the rewards of achieving their goals and develop the ability to manage their own success. Many of our students come to us without this knowledge or experience. In some cases, their past is void of this understanding and support has been minimal. This means that we are challenged further to help them earn increased respect, responsibility, trust, privileges and amenities when they do the right thing.

· Students’ transitions from one phase of the program to the next are viewed in this region as a handoff and likened to passing a baton in a relay race. In a relay race, one doesn’t just drop the baton off at the end of their leg for the next runner to pick up. The baton is handed to the next runner and for a period of time both the passer and receiver of the baton are holding on to it The passer does not let go until they are certain the receiver has it under their control. If this does not happen, the baton will be dropped and the race will be lost. This is the standard against which all transitions are measured. Students are not merely transitioned from one phase to the next, but are actually “handed off” and introduced to the staff of the next phase before they are formally transitioned. Our students deserve smooth and seamless transitions.

· If you owned your own business, would you hire Job Corps graduates from your center? If there are some graduates at your center that you would not hire, then those students are not ready to enter the workforce and you should not ask or expect anyone else to hire them either. This is the quality standard against which center performance is measured in this region.

OUTREACH AND ADMISSIONS (OA)

Region IV requires that the business and community liaison functions outlined in PRH 1.1 R.6 be organized and coordinated and that each center have an active and effective Community Relations Council (CRC) and Industry Council (IC). The CRC is expected to bring added value to the center and to students’ learning experiences. The IC is expected to advise the center on the selection and content of vocational offerings as well as help identify work-based learning and employment opportunities for students.

Region IV also requires that each center have an active and effective Academic Advisory Council (AAC; see Regional Directive 04-04, December 10, 2004). The AAC is expected to facilitate connections with external education programs and resources, advise on curriculum and educational programs, and enhance staff recruiting and professional development.

All of the Job Corps centers in Region IV are responsible for the outreach functions in their immediate geographic area as described in PRH 1.1. While many centers have their own OA contracts, some do not. Outreach and admissions functions not performed by centers are performed by outreach and admissions contractors. Which entity provides arrivals to which center(s) is described in the Region IV OA Geographic Assignment Plan (GAP). In accordance with WIA, the major consideration in developing the GAP was to try to keep students as close to home as possible while still providing them with training appropriate to their career goals and local labor markets. GAP arrival numbers represent contractual arrangements between contractors and the Department of Labor. Geographically, we are bound by law (WIA) to prioritize sending students to Job Corps centers in their home states. In some instances Job Corps centers in neighboring states are closer than the home state center or otherwise better meet the applicant’s needs or those of the local labor market. Where specified in the GAP or when the applicant’s need is clearly documented, there is flexibility in assignment.

Regardless of which contractor or agency actually pays the salaries of the admission counselors in the field, they work for the Job Corps center or centers they serve and their job is to keep those centers full with eligible, suitable, motivated students. They are expected to know in detail the centers they serve. This is accomplished by frequently visiting, regularly communicating with, and developing strong working relationships with those centers. The Job Corps centers are equally responsible for making certain that admission counselors providing them with students have all the information they need to effectively screen and prepare students for their experience at the particular center to which they are being assigned. All admission counselors are also expected to develop working relationships with local One-Stop Career Centers and ensure that, at a minimum, Job Corps services are included on the menu of services available through the one-stop system.

The OA staff’s primary function is to determine suitability and eligibility for Job Corps enrollment. That determination must be consistent with the needs of the individual, and must also address the WIA (subtitle C – Job Corps) requirement which states, “the purposes of this subtitle are to maintain a national Job Corps program, carried out in partnership with states and communities to assist eligible youth who need and can benefit from an intensive program, operated in a group setting in residential and non residential centers, to become more responsible, employable, and productive citizens” (italics added for emphasis).

The region’s recruitment strategy is based on identifying a sufficient number of eligible and suitable applicants to create waiting lists for each center. There are several mechanisms in place to assist an admission counselor (AC) in making a recommendation regarding eligibility and suitability. While centers have their own processes, the region expects them to use the following:

· Series of appointments (commitment/problem solving)

· Request for necessary documents (follow-through/commitment)

· Purpose of CDSS (understanding of program)

· Purpose of zero tolerance (understanding employability)

· Center tours, physically or virtual (understanding/commitment/interest)

· Pre-arrival calls conducted by center staff, including health and wellness staff as appropriate and as addressed in the regional OA conference (September, 2005)

· Pre-application interview (interest/commitment/understanding/suitability)

· Program readiness component More detail about these expectations is provided in the Region IV Career Transition Services Policy and Procedures Manual (see Region IV Directive 03-06, July 12,2004).

Again, Region IV expects use of a pre-application process which allows interested individuals an opportunity to “sell themselves” to ACs. This opportunity is invaluable as the AC gets to know the applicant better, hears about their aspirations and motivation, and assesses their commitment. The pre-applicant gets an opportunity to learn more about the Job Corps program, its policies, rules and requirements and ask questions regarding their specific needs. Because there is no application started, applicants are free to consider whether Job Corps is the right choice for them. This informal interview allows both the AC and the pre-applicant to make an informed decision about the next step.

The program readiness component allows centers to utilize numerous staff with necessary expertise to instruct and interact with interested individuals before initiating an application. This component is a series of classes provided by center staff and subcontractors. Areas of instruction include CDSS, vocational offerings, labor market information, acclimation to center life, time commitment, zero tolerance, attendance, punctuality, introduction to normative culture and to the Career Success Standards, and more. Daily evaluations are made concerning the applicant’s adherence to rules, regulations and desire to continue in the program. Staff members provide guidance and feedback to all participants on a daily basis, and areas of concern are addressed immediately. More information about a program readiness component can be found in the Region IV - CTS Policies and Procedures Manual previously referenced.

Consistent with PRH 1.3, Requirement 3, the region expects admissions counselors will provide or help applicants to acquire labor market information specific to their career interests and hometown or intended location of post-center residence. This should then be incorporated into the process of initiating the electronic Personal Career Development Plan (ePCDP) with the applicant prior to enrollment. In addition, ACs must complete the Admissions Counselor Assessment Tool (ACAT: see PRH Appendix 102) fully and correctly with special emphasis on “rationale for making recommendation to enroll”. This section is particularly critical to selecting the individual who has demonstrated “a need and benefit” from the Job Corps Program…”to become more responsible, employable and productive citizens’.

The region has developed promotional materials, including center fa ct sheets, outreach posters, GED posters, general Job Corps fact sheets, vocational facts sheets and more. These, as well as nationally-developed materials, are available for download from the Dallas Region Web site at http://dallasregion.jobcorps.gov.

CAREER PREPARATION PERIOD (CPP)

The Career Preparation Period is the “rite of passage” into CDSS. It is the transitional experience that takes the applicant from new enrollee to the status of student. It is the period of preparation, grooming, shaping, testing, evaluating, assessing and placing students into the academic and career paths that meet their individual needs and will lead them into their first career positions. It should also be interactive and inspiring to motivate maintain and build on the motivation that led the student to apply to Job Corps in the first place. It is their starting point. As indicated earlier, Region IV describes CDSS as a relay race. It is the assessment of the runners’ individual attributes and the smoothness of the hand-off process that determine how the race is run and won. CPP helps define the starting point. From this position, the transition or handoff is made into the rest of the program.

We have learned from redirect, readmit and recommit pilot programs conducted in this region, as well as from our centers that retain students best, that one of the critical components to students connecting with and staying in Job Corps is how they are initially engaged in the center culture. The more their initial center experiences are welcoming, structured and supported, the more likely they will stay. The more they are left to try to figure things out for themselves, the less likely they are to form productive relationships – and the less likely they are to stay. This suggests support programs where new arrivals discuss their initial experiences on center and share what they have learned about center culture with their peers, student leaders and caring staff. This also suggests establishing mentoring relationships between new students and more seasoned and mature students who will help them learn to succeed in what is to them a strange new world. Finally, this suggests that new students may need a more structured schedule than more seasoned students would need – a schedule that keeps them productively engaged while and until they learn how to keep themselves productively engaged, both on center and throughout life. All of this serves to engage them in a center’s positive normative culture.

Region IV expects a career management team (CMT: see PRH 2.8, R1) case management approach to assessing students’ individual needs and guiding them through individualized programs. Staff from various departments assess and document students’ needs and strengths through formal testing (such as in wellness and academics) and through professional conferences (such as those conducted by counselors). In all instances, the end result is to develop a well-informed plan that gets students through the beginning and positions them to achieve their career goals. Staff should use CPP to assist students in developing confidence and motivation to achieve career goals.

The use of a CPP training achievement record (TAR) is also expected by this region. A sample CPP TAR is included as Appendix G in the Region IV Career Transition Services Policy and Procedure Manual referenced earlier. We believe that social and employability skills, as structured in the Career Success Standards, will make the difference in the student’s ability to successfully complete the program and obtain and retain employment. It is therefore expected that these skills be taught in the CPP component and that performance be documented and retained in the TAR as well as the ePCDP.

In addition, students’ levels of competency in the Career Success Standards are tested by allowing students an opportunity to participate in their first work-based learning (WBL) experience, which should occur on center. This first WBL assignment should be in the form of center support, community support, or other work experience approved by the center director. This component should have job descriptions, reporting responsibility and an evaluation form that documents such basic skills as punctuality, dependability, following directions, accepting supervision and getting along with others. Evaluations should be shared with all members of the student’s CMT.

The region has taken note that the PRH does not state that CPP must be 60 days in length. However, the PRH does describe a series of activities and learning objectives that all new students must complete within their first 60 days on center. Experiences we have seen at our centers indicate that it will take the average student 60 days to complete those requirements. However, we recognize that some students will require more or less time to do so. The student’s ability to progress through CPP will have a strong correlation to the effectiveness and dynamic nature of the CPP program.

Given the importance of the activities and learning objectives required during CPP and the impact they have on a student’s ability to participate in and benefit from the career development period (CDP), the region believes that all students should substantially complete CPP requirements before academic and vocational classes are integrated into their schedule. We place special emphasis on PRH 2.9, which requires that, in order “to ensure that students are fully prepared for successful participation in the Career Development Period… each student’s career management team shall conduct a formal evaluation prior to the student’s entry into CDP.” We believe this evaluation must include an assessment of Career Success Standards. Our expectation is that centers will require students to demonstrate their understanding of and willingness to adhere to the Career Success Standards by showing up on time and ready to work, taking direction/following instructions and getting along with others in CPP before they will be moved into CDP.

The region also expects centers to identify students who lack a driver’s license and, where possible, have them complete the classroom portion of driver education while in CPP. This will maximize the likelihood that they will successfully obtain a license prior to departing the center. If at all possible, no student should graduate from Job Corps without a driver’s license.

Finally, since Region IV has a large number of students with limited English proficiency (LEP), centers serving these students must ensure that they receive the benefit and meet all the requirements of CPP in an English as a second language (ESL) environment with a trained ESL instructor.

CAREER DEVELOPMENT PERIOD (CDP)

The Career Development Period provides students with intensive instruction in academic and vocational areas while they apply interpersonal skills, communications, personal growth and development and other Career Success Standards. Centers create training environments that model the work place as closely as possible. Employer partners and members of the Industry Council visit career technical classrooms and confer with instructors about the applicability of the training provided, what skills should be added, and how effective they perceive the training. Instructors and employers work through the Industry Council to maintain open lines of communication that keep the center director informed of employer concerns, support, and needs. Educational partners and members of the Academic Advisory Council visit academic classrooms – and sometimes career and technical education classrooms – and confer with teachers and center management on appropriate instructional methods and resources and the educational requirements for matriculation into higher education.

In addition to the projects and workplace simulations, students experience the world of work through job shadowing and work-based learning (WBL) assignments that occur on center during the early stages of career and technical training and at an employer’s work site when the student has gained more skills. During CDP, WBL assignments should align with the student’s vocational training and should include opportunities to learn and reinforce specific TAR items as well as employer-specific skills that are not in the TAR but make the student more marketable.

CDP ensures that Job Corps participants are provided appropriate career development services customized to their needs. It also provides a format for the student and center staff to address any barriers or issues that impede training or full participation by the student. CDP allows students the opportunity to avail themselves of services and training that will lead to training-related employment, and prepares students for employment before entering the Career Transition Period (CTP). CDP’s focus is not only on education and career technical skills, but includes a holistic focus on all that is needed to progress toward career goals. Students continue the process of learning and demonstrating those skills needed to become “career ready” while obtaining their academic and career technical training. This is done simultaneously and seamlessly. The region believes the following applications will facilitate this process and expects their incorporation in CDP: (1) Infusing the Career Success Standards throughout CDP; (2) Integrating academics in career/technical training and vice versa, or adopting a fully integrated applied academic program;( 3) Center staff and student leaders modeling professionalism, monitoring each other’s behavior, and mentoring students on the skills needed for career success – and doing so within a normative culture;( 4) Staff and students confronting inappropriate behavior through a normative culture approach; and (5) Providing an interactive career readiness seminar for students scheduled to transition to CTP (i.e., review and have students demonstrate Career Success Standards and the ability to conduct job searches, navigate the labor market, make cold calls to employers, and more).

Counseling Students’ counselors are the travel agents for their “journey to the future.” Counselors are expected to assist students in developing and meeting their individual goals and in managing their personal career development plans. The region recommends that counselor caseloads be assigned by career cluster and that counselors be required to visit their trades every day, thereby ensuring that they see their entire caseload each day. In addition, counselors are the student’s advocates during the CMT process. To be effective, counselors must be totally knowledgeable of the student. They must track, guide and counsel students and assist them in making appropriate employment choices. For the purpose of tracking student needs/barriers, counselors should refer to the “Critical Career Path” chart (see Region IV Career Transition Services Policy and Procedure Manual, Appendix H).

Counselors must perform dual roles – acting as a personal counselor to assist a student when confronted with personal issues and a career counselor when guiding students to make correct employment-related choices. They must work to develop a student’s self-esteem and confidence and help them prepare for the world of work. Counselors must be seen not only as knowledgeable and dependable, but must also be seen as supportive and caring. In short, they must be the “competent, caring adults” that youth development research shows are critical to personal and career development.

Career Success Standards

Centers are expected to implement the Career Success Standards with concurrent emphases on (1) direct instruction in the standards and the competencies they include, (2) role modeling by staff and student leaders, and (3) infusion of career-appropriate behavioral norms throughout center culture, (4) mentoring by all staff and student leaders, and (5) monitoring and providing feedback to students to help them achieve the Career Success Standards. This must be reinforced in all areas of the Job Corps program. More information on this is available at http://jccdrc.jobcorps.gov/CSS Academic Instruction Having an education, which includes accumulated knowledge, the ability to apply that knowledge, and the ability to learn new information and skills, is arguably the most transferable employability skill. Obtaining a GED or high school diploma (HSD) is obviously very important, not just because it is measured in Job Corps, but because it is proof that the student has received an education. We must never lose sight of the fact that the credential is not an end in itself. It is the product of an education that provides academic skills needed for successful careers and lives. It is that key to success that we are striving to provide for our students. This is why Job Corps measures literacy and numeracy as well as GED/HSD in our center ratings. Therefore, the academic programs at our centers must be designed and structured so that students can accumulate knowledge, practice applying that knowledge, and further develop their ability to learn and obtain an appropriate credential.

It is a well-established educational principle that young people learn better in context than they do in the abstract. This is why Job Corps stresses the use of an applied academic approach to its academic program, an approach which is strongly supported by this region.

Additionally, research conducted recently by the Philadelphia Region confirmed what we have long known: that the majority of Job Corps students are kinesthetic learners, which means they learn best by doing. Therefore, academic classes must be participative and interactive; teachers must make maximum use of manipulables, simulations, group activities and project based teaching/learning strategies. The Job Corps Career Development Resource Center (http://jccdrc.jobcorps.gov) includes several resources and links that can help teachers to make this happen.

Further research conducted for the Dallas Region by Brand Keys, Inc. found that Job Corps students are more motivated to acquire an education and obtain an academic credential when the academic program is directed toward their higher level needs (self-actualizations vs. survival as defined by Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.) This means that staff and students must see the academic program, and represent it, as a way for students to realize their potential (be all they can be) and not just as a way to get a piece of paper that will add a few dollars to their paychecks. This means the academic instruction provided at our Job Corps centers must be engaging, stimulating and challenging; and the substance of that instruction must be enriched with content that addresses current events, philosophy and the arts.

To assist centers in preparing their academic instructors to meet these expectations, Region IV has developed a teacher training program titled Engaging for Success: Tapping Students’ Values, Interests and Potential. This program was introduced at a major academic conference in October, 2003. Additional copies of the materials developed for this training program are available upon request from the Regional Office. Centers are encouraged to use these materials as part of their teacher in-service training.

Region IV has been very active in supporting the National High School Diploma Initiative. Two states, Oklahoma and Texas, have successfully created a coalition of centers and contractors and gained diploma granting status from their states. This allows 8, or one third, of our centers to be diploma-granting entities. The three centers in Montana were able to gain state legislation that allows them to grant their students the credits they need to complete high school diplomas that are then awarded by the last public high school they attended. Other centers have pursued partnerships with local school districts or with charter schools that allow students to complete high school diplomas on center and, in some cases, have provided resources that help the center to accommodate students with special needs.

In addition to such HSD programs, centers are strongly encouraged to become GED testing sites so the fate of centers/students is not in the hands of unknown parties, sometimes with competing agendas. We encourage our centers to be imaginative and creative in pursuing this initiative, but caution them to operate within the parameters Job Corps’ concurrent enrollment policy that went into effect on July 1, 2004 (see PRH 3.14).

The region also recognizes that many of our students come from families and environments where education has not been valued. In fact, in many cases the reverse is true. Young people are made fun of and ostracized for being smart. We believe Job Corps must change that perspective if our students are to succeed in the academic program. We strongly support those centers that demonstrate appreciation for academic progress by “celebrating small steps” with their students through announcements, T-shirts, receptions, center recognition at business meetings and more recognition of students that obtained their GED or acquired their HSD. Congratulations offered and pride displayed by student and staff are genuinely contagious! Infusing a value for educational accomplishment into center culture has long been a priority in this region, and is captured in Dallas Region Directive 02-02 (December 17, 2002).

We realize that this is a lot to ask of centers, and that they will need to tap local and state resources to support academic initiatives to the maximum extent possible. We also realize that such community support requires structure, and have therefore required all centers in the region to develop an Academic Advisory Council (AAC) to facilitate these efforts. The AAC may also be very useful for tapping staff development resources for both academic and career technical faculty.

Career Technical Education (Vocational Training) Region IV has long been committed to providing career technical education in a work-based context. The concept of engaging local businesses to assist in training our students solidified in this region eight years ago, when the first national employer partnership was developed here. Our vision of work-based learning begins on center and requires that vocational shops and classrooms be configured, and vocational instruction be designed, to replicate actual workplace conditions to the maximum extent possible. We also require vocational instructors to be knowledgeable of the workplace and be current with labor market information. In this region, we work with employer partners and encourage centers to work creatively with their schedules, staffing patterns and summer and winter breaks to enable career technical instructors to schedule time off-center to visit employers. These visits reaffirm the instructor’s commitment to training students in the knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes that meet employers’ needs. A residual benefit of these visits occurs when employers provide employment opportunities for our students upon graduation.

As noted in the outreach section of this plan, we also expect employers to be visible on center, to be involved in career technical training both on and off-center, as worksite supervisors for work-based learning, as technical advisors to career technical instructors, and as presenters who help students and staff address Career Success Standards as well as technical skills.

79 of the career technical offerings in this region are provided by National Training Contractors (NTCs). NTCs are therefore full-fledged partners in our students’ success. We require that they be fully integrated within the center and all aspects of students’ training, vocational and employability experience. NTCs are extremely knowledgeable and experienced in training as well as career transition services. They are resources to career and technical education and to the center as a whole that we cannot afford to underutilize.

The region supports national initiatives aimed a career clustering and career academies as an approach to increase the rigor and relevance of both career technical and academic education. We expect all centers and center operators to pay close attention and be responsive as directives and initiatives are unrolled from the national level.

Appropriate certifications validate to employers that our graduates have the skills that the employer needs. They make our graduates attractive employees. However, this benefit is only accrued if the certifications are recognized and valued by the employers in the communities where our graduates reside. We therefore provided training and information about certification at our February, 2005 conference, “Certification, Accreditation, and Matriculation” (see Region IV Information Notice 04-04). Materials from that conference can be acquired on CD-ROM by contacting the Regional Office). We continue to expect our centers to work with their Industry Councils and the National Office’s career technical education support contractor to identify appropriate certifications and incorporate them into career technical education and update or replace them as the labor market demand dictates.

Work-Based Learning

We view specific work-based learning assignments with employer partners, both on and off center, as serving a dual purpose. First, they are opportunities for students to test their assumptions about the career they have chosen and their newly acquired career success competencies in a real work setting. This only has value if: (1) centers, students and employer-partners agree to learning and work achievement goals in advance; (2) centers regularly and systematically receive structured feedback about students from work-based learning employer partners; and (3) centers then take deliberate action to correct the deficiencies noted by the employer in a student’s skills and, where patterns in feedback are found, correct the deficiencies in their curriculum or teaching strategies.