Although in May, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the termination of all Job Corps programs nationwide by the end of June, those programs live on, including in Hawai‘i. After a federal court ruling blocked the Department of Labor from cutting the Job Corps, and as litigation to determine the fate of the Corps continues, student recruits are still being accepted into the program.
Hawai‘i Job Corps’ Center Director Ellen May told Aloha State Daily that, for the time being, funding is still available for the program, which provides low-income young people between the ages of 16 and 24 with vocational training and schooling along with housing, meals and other support services.
“Our supporters did such a great job getting the news out that there was a possibility that we were being shut down and closing … now people tell us ‘I thought you were closed,’” May said. “Not only are we open and taking students, but we are really good at what we do.”
Job Corps has two centers in Hawai‘i, in Waimānalo and Makawao on Maui. May said the two centers — with combined space for more than 300 students to live on-campus — consistently rates among the top of the program’s more than 100 centers nationwide, based on the success of Hawai‘i's students.
“Our high school program broke records this year with students completing their high school diplomas,” May said. “And the same with the career technical training, we had the highest number of students that completed both their trade [certification] and high school diploma. We were ranked number one in the nation for those measures, which is a point of pride for all of us.”
D'Monerica Valasco joined the Corps in October 2024 and has been studying a pre-apprenticeship program for commercial painting. Set to complete that training in February, Valasco said she hopes to join a union — specifically, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades — and “get an honest job.”
Before joining the Corps, Valasco said she was looking for work on Hawai‘i Island for a long time.
“On the Big Island, there’s not many jobs over there, so I was unemployed for quite a while, like a year,” Valasco said.
Robin Schlitzkus, IUPAT representative, said the training certifications Job Corps students can receive through the program allows them to command higher pay when entering the job market. Non-union shops, he said, would have to pay for workplace safety training for new employees, for example, while Job Corps students can receive that training through the program.
IUPAT is one of several unions and other employer partners of Job Corps Hawai‘i, May said, who can provide on-the-job training, apprenticeship training, and more.
Apprenticeship training, in particular, seems to be a focus of the current presidential administration. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in April — about a month before the planned cull of Job Corps was announced — calling for an expansion of apprenticeship programs “to fill the growing demand for skilled trades and other occupations.”
“We hear they’ve been focusing on apprenticeship pathways, and, like, we’ve been working on this for over 40 years, and we’ve really perfected that,” May said. “We’ve really perfected the formula to help students get that success, the support they need to be successful.”
However, May added, the Corps has multiple career tracks, including a university enrollment track, a military track and others, that students can choose between throughout their time at the Corps. There are even further apprenticeship courses on the Mainland that students can attend, free of charge, and decide whether to return to Hawai‘i or pursue employment out-of-state.
Despite this, May said she believes Job Corps also helps equip students to be able to stay in the state. Not only do the competitive wages of graduates help offset the state’s high cost of living, but she said the program also offers courses to teach independent living skills, such as financial literacy and money management.
After more than 60 years of existence, May said certain misconceptions have grown around Job Corps, not least that it’s a program strictly to reform troubled youth.
“And there might be times where that’s absolutely true, and we can help anybody who is struggling,” May said. “But, by and large, our students are respectful, they’re driven, they’re hardworking, they want to give back to their community and they inspire our staff every day.”
“It doesn’t hurt to try,” Valasco said. “It’s better to try than to not try at all.”
Prospective students can learn more here.
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