Coronavirus forces Joliet Job Corps to make changes

Joliet Job Corps is offering a virtual open house from
11 a.m. to noon Aug. 25.

Attendees will see the Joliet campus/dormitories, engage with center staff and instructors and discuss how the Job Corps advanced training program may benefit graduating seniors and those seeking full-time employment.

Registration is required. Visit bit.ly/2Yl6Uor.

To qualify for Joliet Job Corps, students must be age 16 to 24, meet certain income levels, need job skills and be able to work in the U.S, according to the Joliet Job Corps website.

The program is free.

In light of COVID-19, Joliet Job Corps is still offering a fully remote program, which began in March, according to Roger F. Fisher, business and community liaison for Joliet Job Corps.

“On a weekly basis, they were responsible for submitting work online through Google Suite ... they had daily work to complete,” Fisher said. “Each classroom was facilitated by an academic instructor or a training instructor.”

Fisher said about 85% of the students at Joliet Job Corps are students of color. About 80% of the students are from Chicago, he said.

The remaining are from the Joliet area, although some students hail from Racine, Wisconsin; and St. Louis, Missouri, Fisher said.

Because some students were employed and some didn’t have access to technology at home, Joliet Job Corp made the remote program accommodating to the students, Fisher said.

“Some who had a lack of technology, we did provide them with hardbound work packets that we had sent to their home address, or where they were currently living,” Fisher said. “Once they completed their work, they submitted the entire packet back to us for grading and review.”

Students receive more than an education and job training at Joliet Job Corps. The center also provides housing and meals, Fisher said.

Staff connected resources for meeting those needs with the students who needed them and then checked with them on a daily basis to ensure their needs were being met, Fisher said.

“We were very proactive with that,” he said.

When Joliet Job Corps does begin reopening its Joliet center to students, the number of students will be limited to 10, Fisher said.

Although switching to remote learning did come with “a few bumps in the road,” Fisher said students did well with the program, to the extent of maintaining contact with students who had extra hurdles to overcome.

“That’s been a helpful process as well, the students who encouraged their classmates,” Fisher said.