Cassadaga, NY- The National Office of Job Corps has recently announced that the Cassadaga Job Corps Academy will be among the Job Corps campuses chosen across the country to increase its student population; known in Job Corps as on board strength or OBS. The increase will result in the enrollment of 30 additional students at the Academy. In order to fully serve these new young men and women the Academy will also need to bring on board a new career training program. After careful consideration and research the Academy has chosen to move forward with a Security and Protective Services training program. Academy Director Ann Anderson stated “I am very proud that the National and Regional Office of Job Corps have recognized Cassadaga’s strong performance over the years and as a result have awarded us with 30 additional students.”
The announcement from the National Office on the OBS increase comes after months of planning and determining criteria that would be used to decide which Job Corps campuses would be selected for the additional students. The National Office finally determined they would propose an increase for Job Corps centers that were performing in the top half of the 125 Centers across the country, based on three years of performance data. In addition the Center’s selected needed to demonstrate the new students would be placed in a career training program that would result in opportunities for career growth. During last year’s federal budgetary struggles and sequestration, all Job Corps centers had the populations they served reduced by about 20%.
The Security and Protective services training program will be a first time offering for the Cassadaga campus, and offers a training program outside the traditional construction and healthcare programs that have been offered there. Robert Benjamin, career development director said “we are very excited to be offering the Security program at Cassadaga. We feel it presents numerous opportunities for students to secure jobs and explore potential career paths in a variety of areas including law enforcement, video surveillance, private security work and others.” He went on to say “this new offering will also provide a pool of candidates for our College program as well, for those that wish to go to the next level and pursue a degree in criminal justice.” Topics included in the courses curriculum include legal aspects of security and protective services, crisis intervention, alarm systems and dispatch centers, crime scene procedures, interview and interrogation techniques, computer and IT security, as well as much more. The Academy is currently seeking an instructor and preparing materials and the classroom which will be utilized. Interested applicants are encouraged to contact the admissions office to express their interest and begin their application.