Planned career schools aim to help young black men

Job Corps, a trade-based training scheme for school drop-outs, and Career Academies, vocational-based schools for specific careers, are in the pipeline.

In her 100-day progress report, Premier Paula Cox said: “We have been laying the groundwork to proceed with the implementation of recommendations found in Professor Ronald Mincy’s study, Young Black Males.

Effective

“We aim to facilitate the type of workforce development needed to better serve our most precious resource, our young people.”

The Bermuda Sun understands this will include Job Corps and Career Academies as well as a review of Bermuda College.

Job Corps has been praised as a highly effective programme for high-school drop-outs in the U.S.

Aimed at disadvantaged young people between the ages of 16 and 24 it works with labour unions and employers to provide vocational training in more than 75 different trades.

Recruits can also study for their GED.

Kim Wilson, Trade and Industry Minister, has been tasked with establishing a Bermuda version.

It is a “work in progress” but will form part of the Ministry’s long-term strategy for ensuring Bermudians are qualified in careers where they were needed.

Ms Wilson added: “Not only was this an important recommendation of the report but in this economy we have to do everything possible to assist individuals seeking employment, careers counselling, training and development.” The Mincy Report highlighted an alarming 50 per cent drop-out rate for young black males in Bermuda’s public education system.

It recommended Government funding should follow them out of the school system and be reinvested in programmes that help them get careers and enhanced their future earning potential. It describes Job Corps as a scheme that could easily be mirrored successfully in Bermuda.

The report states: “Job Corps is the largest federally funded, vocationally-focused education programme in the U.S. for disadvantaged youth, mostly non-white high school drop-outs between 16 and 24, including many with former arrests, especially among males.

Math

“The primary services provided include vocational training in more than 75 trades, with input from local businesses and labour unions, which provide information about specific competencies required by the training.

“Individualized and self-paced academic instruction in math, reading and writing skills leading to the GED certificate, counselling, social-skills training and health education.

“A comprehensive programme, Job Corps also provides support services for those with substance abuse problems and recreational services.

“Following participation, Job Corps also provides job-placement services or assistance with additional training.”

The Department of Education has also been asked to look into establishing Career Academies — another of Mincy’s recommendations.

These focus on specific skills and qualifications required for certain careers.

The report states: “Career academies are small schools, usually involving 100-200 students, which organize the educational experience around specific career-based themes (health and hospitals, for example).

“In pursuing this theme, students take academic, career and technical courses while participating in job-shadowing experiences of school-local employer collaborations.

“A long-term rigorous evaluation has shown very positive results on school completion, earnings especially for at-risk black males in the United States.

“Career Academies could be created in existing school facilities, with dedicated teachers and school administrators trained to deliver the unique Career Academy programme, which has now been replicated in more than 100 communities in the U.S.”