VERGENNES — Due to a decision by the Trump Administration to halt operations at nearly a hundred job training programs for young adults, the Northlands Job Corps vocational education program will close by June 30.

Locals are dismayed.

This will put a lot of people out of work and will be detrimental for the students who will be displaced, pointed out Phil Summers, executive director of the Addison County Chamber of Commerce.

“I think they are equally important. Not only will we lose local jobs but the opportunity for graduates to become residents employed by Addison County businesses,” Summers told the Independent. “Job Corp students also are consistent volunteers for Chamber and other community events and projects.”

Northlands currently employs 110 people, according to Michael Dooley, the center director. He said 150 young people are learning trades there now. Northlands could accommodate 220 students, but the U.S. Department of Labor has not performed any background checks for new students since March.

“In essence (they’re) choking off the program by not allowing new students in,” Dooley said.

About a third of students are Vermonters, and a third are from other New England states.

Job Corps is a no-cost education and vocational training program administered by the Department of Labor that helps young people ages 16-24 improve the quality of their lives by empowering them to get great jobs and become independent, according to the DOL.

In announcing that all contracted Job Corps center were being put on pause last week, U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the program is no longer achieving its intended outcomes for students.

Is Northlands living up to its intended outcomes?

Dooley pointed out that Northlands is ranked No. 1 out of 120 Job Corps for job placement outcomes.

“We placed 80% of our graduates (in jobs) prior to them leaving the center this year,” he said.

Summers said Northlands is “absolutely” achieving positive outcomes for its students.

“I personally have had the opportunity to meet with many of their students over the last several years and have been impressed with their level of professionalism and knowledge,” he said.

New Haven resident Eva Doane said she became acquainted with Northlands when her daughter worked there.

“I feel strongly that this program is a necessary investment in underprivileged youth,” she said. “When students succeed at Job Corps, and about 60% do, they no longer need the social safety net. They have, against incredible odds, become contributing members of society, and broken the cycle of poverty. That is huge!”

The Vermont Department of Labor said it will assist current students in connecting to alternative training and employment opportunities and it will also help employees who will be losing their jobs.

“The department will provide information about unemployment insurance, reemployment services, and services available at the Resource Centers around the state,” Department of Labor employee Rowan Hawthorne told legislators this week. “These pre-layoff services are designed to help the impacted workers shorten their transition time and prepare them to find new employment.”

Coincidentally, a big job fair had previously been scheduled to take place at Northlands on June 5. The Vermont DOL will provide in-person layoff and job search assistance services there and is coordinating with HireAbility (formerly called VocRehab) to share information to develop situation-specific responses, Hawthorne said.

Seemingly oblivious to her announced closing of Job Corps, U.S. Labor Secretary Chavez-DeRemer this week touted the work that her agency is doing in training Americans for jobs in welding and other hands-on tasks that Northlands teaches.

“I’ve seen firsthand the impact of investments in top-notch training programs that drive local economic growth,” Chavez-DeRemer said in New Jersey. “When we invest in skills and opportunity, we empower men and women to build better lives for themselves and their families.”

Dooley said that Northlands’s most popular program is Welding/Advanced Welding.

There is a chance that the pause in Job Corps operations may not happen. The National Job Corps Association has filed a lawsuit asking a court to temporarily stop the closure of all Job Corps programs.

Doane hopes Northlands is spared.

“This program has been supported in a bipartisan manner for years, and through many administrations,” she said. “I cannot believe that this administration is throwing it away.”