U.S. Labor Secretary Tours Job Corps Ahead of Graduation

As Navy helicopters cut through the air nearby, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor Hilda Solis took a tour of San Diego Job Corps facilities Friday in Imperial Beach. 

San Diego Job Corps sits on land leased to the Department of Labor by the Navy and operates out of former Navy barracks, galleys and administrative buildings, said Captain Yancy B. Lindsey who came to greet and quickly introduce himself to Solis.

No members of the City of Imperial Beach government were present.

The tour weaved across the campus for near two hours in classes where students learn about carpentry, pharmacy, brick laying, tile setting, electrician, plumbing and other trades.

"This is exactly what the president was talking about in his State of The Union address, about putting people to work in manufacturing jobs, and I'm so excited to hear that these students are working on this hybrid vehicle," Solis said after a tour of an auto tech facility.

The president also proposed a Veterans Job Corps in his speech to get vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan jobs with fire and police departments.

Solis and the Labor Department offered few details about when such a program would go into action, but she said they are looking at reserving more space for veterans at Job Corps facilities.

It is not yet known whether a Veterans Job Corps would operate within current Job Corps facilities which are part of the Department of Labor.

"In some places we have already made an effort with about 300 slots nationally where we identified young veterans who just recently returned from the wars, from tours, and we're asking that slots be made available so that they can also get to these kinds of certificated programs," she said.

Job Corps currently has a pilot program at Job Corps locations in Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri. Job Corps has 125 centers across the United States. Veterans at all Job Corps facilities between the ages of 16 to 24 may be able to have other eligibility requirements waived.

When asked what she sees as some of the top jobs in 2012-2013, Solis said growth may occur in the green energy sector as well as in the pharmaceutical and health care arenas.

"The ability to operate and transition in and out of these careers is going to be important, and you well know that we saw so many people lose their jobs," she said.

"Some of those jobs won't ever come back and the jobs that we see growing are in fact in areas that require more math skills, more reading skills, more language ability, obviously the ability to work on computers."

Leaders from unions including the Parent Institute for Quality Education, Home Builders Institute and the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council also joined the secretary on the tour. 

Solis then joined students for lunch at the cafeteria.

"These are what I like to call well kept secrets. They're kind of the diamond in the rough, where people don't always look and understand what actually takes place on the ground here, and how these young people's lives are changing," she said.

A total 105 students will graduate from the program at a ceremony today which was scheduled to start at 4 p.m. The next graduation is scheduled to take place in August.

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