A Study of the Effectiveness of the Penobscot Job Corps Center Measured By the Success of Former Students in the Labor Market.

The purpose of this research was to determine if there existed a relationship between an experience in the Job Corps program and success in the labor market after leaving the Job Corps. Success in the labor market was measured in terms of the amount of employment, relationship of employment to training, wage levels, and the time to find employment. The factors considered for data collection were age, sex, race, marital status, highest grade completed, size of home town, residential status and vocational program selected. The variables investigated were length of training, category of termination, length of time to find employment, percentage of time employed and highest hourly wage earned. The research also included a social psychological dimension which probed differences in the outlook on life between those entering and those leaving the Job Corps program. The SCROLE Anomie Scale was adapted to the sample to achieve this perspective. The sample included those who were eighteen years of age or older, who either graduated or resigned from the Job Corps during the calendar year 1981. Fifty nine percent of the three hundred thirty six former students responded to the mailed questionnaire. The study found positive relationships between the measures of labor market success and age, sex, highest grade completed, time in Job Corps, marital status, vocational program studied and the residence status of the student while attending the Job Corps. No significant differences in the outlook on life between those entering and those leaving the Job Corps program were found through the SCROLE Anomie Scale. The study concluded that the single factor which had the greatest impact upon the labor market success was the length of stay in the Job Corps. It was recommended that the Center should endeavor to find means by which the average length of stay on center could be increased.PhDVocational educationUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160035/1/8412247.pd