Job Corps

The Labor Department spends about $1 billion on the Jobs Corps program each year to job train severely disadvantaged youths. Labor has several efforts to foster the program's employer and community linkages to help ensure that its vocational training is appropriate to local labor markets and relevant to employers' needs. However, Jobs Corps' data on the extent to which participants complete vocational training and obtain training-related jobs are misleading and overstate the program's results. GAO found that only 14 percent of program participants actually completed all the requirements of their vocational training curricula. At five Job Corps centers GAO visited, the validity of about 41 percent of the job placements reported by Labor to be training-related was questionable. At one center, Labor reported that several participants receiving clerical training had gotten jobs as bank tellers, even though they actually worked at fast food restaurants, retail stores, and a gas station. GAO also found that about one third of Job Corps' vocational training has been provided under sole source contracts awarded to national labor and business organizations for more than 30 years. In GAO's opinion, Labor has not adequately justified procuring these training services noncompetitively.

GAO noted that: (1) the Department of Labor has several activities to foster Job Corps' employer and community linkages to ensure the appropriateness of its vocational training to local labor markets and its relevance to employers' needs; (2) Labor has industry advisory groups that regularly review vocational course curricula to ensure their relevance to today's job market; (3) Labor has also introduced a school-to-work initiative designed to link Job Corps with local employers combining center-based training with actual worksite experience at more than half the Job Corps centers; (4) complementing these national efforts, three of Labor's regional offices have developed their own initiatives to improve linkages between Job Corps and local labor markets; (5) despite Labor's efforts to increase the effectiveness of its vocational training through employer and community linkages, Job Corps data on the extent to which participants complete vocational training and obtain training-related jobs are misleading and overstate the program's results; (6) although Job Corps reported that 48 percent of its program year 1996 participants completed their vocational training, GAO found that only 14 percent of the program participants actually completed all the requirements of their vocational training curricula; (7) the rest of the participants whom Job Corps considered to be vocational completers had performed only some of the duties and tasks of a specific vocational training program; (8) Labor also reported that 62 percent of the participants nationwide who obtained employment found jobs that matched the vocational training received in Job Corps; (9) at the five centers GAO visited, however, the validity of about 41 percent of the job placements reported by Labor to be training-related was questionable; (10) in looking at how training providers are selected, GAO found that about a third of Job Corps' vocational training has been provided under sole source contracts awarded to national labor and business organizations for more than 30 years, but in GAO's opinion, Labor has not adequately justified procuring these training services noncompetitively; (11) a principal reason Labor has cited for awarding these contracts on a sole source basis is that these organizations maintain an extensive nationwide placement network and are better able than nonnational organizations to place Job Corps participants who complete their training; and (12) Labor has provided no data, however, to show the extent to which these sole source contractors actually place Job Corps participants nationwide.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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