A federal program that teaches trades to young adults is having a comeback. Enrollment plummeted at Job Corps campuses nationwide last year after the Trump administration tried — and failed — to shut them down.
But now, enrollment numbers are back up, and students are returning to learn trades supporters say are “AI-proof.”
That’s the case at centers throughout the Mountain West, including the Wind River Job Corps in Riverton, Wyoming.
There, during a Sept. 17 open house, a tight-knit crew of students was cutting and connecting pipes in a workshop. They explained what they were learning to an audience of prospective students, community members and elected officials.
“Oh, let’s see,” the petroleum technician instructor, Gilbert Mascarenaz, said. “Is anyone going to explain what a 1502 union is?”
Students wearing green hard hats and safety goggles whispered potential answers to one another.
“Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?” Mascarenaz joked.
After a long pause, 22-year-old Ivory Harvey stepped up to the plate.
“Connects two sections of pipe. Has this little lip in there,” he started.
Harvey said he used to work at a gas station and became interested in the oil and gas business, so he came here. It’s the only petroleum Job Corps program in the country, something supporters say is needed to help meet rising energy demands.
“It was a good way for me to be able to build my future without really draining my bank or draining my family's bank accounts,” Harvey explained.
That’s because Job Corps is completely free. Since the ’60s, students ages 16 to 24 have received room and board at no cost nationwide while working to graduate high school and get job training of their choice.
“It's a really good opportunity for any families with lower income or less fortunate people trying to still build their life up,” Harvey said.
However, students like Harvey almost lost that opportunity last year in May when the U.S. Department of Labor tried to shut down 99 campuses. That included eight sites in the Mountain West, exempting those run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Labor Department cited a multimillion-dollar budget deficit and low graduation rates, something critics called a hangover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Courts blocked the shutdown early on, and the Trump administration agreed to back down this past August. Congress has also now funded Job Corps centers through June 30, 2027, and prohibited large-scale campus closures by the executive branch.
But amid the uncertainty, enrollment fell by more than half, down from almost 24,000, according to the Labor Department.
“We have certainly stumbled over the last 12 to 24 months on whether or not Job Corps would survive, whether it would be successful,” said Ed Brady, president and CEO of the Home Builders Institute, which partners with Job Corps to deliver training at about 60 campuses nationwide.
Brady said that crisis, however, created a lot of momentum. Enrollment is bouncing back and approaching what it was before, with about 20,000 students in June. Plus, Brady’s group and other partners are working to keep Job Corps relevant.
“So we have a lot of people in the system; they're saying, ‘we've gotta do better. We've got to make this more effective. We’ve got to spend dollars wisely,’” he said.
That means trying to bring attention to aging infrastructure and ensuring Job Corps is modernizing trainings to keep up with demand. Recent labor reports find there’s a shortage of workers in the skilled trades, up to 1.3 million according to one report, which also showed unemployment in the trades is close to a 20-year low. This includes home builders.
“I would say this is an AI-proof industry, or as AI-proof as you can get,” Brady said.
In some cases, AI is even accelerating the demand for skilled workers. Data centers, for example, are driving the need for construction workers, at least temporarily.
Meanwhile, many recent four-year college graduates are struggling to find work. As of 2024, anthropology and computer engineering majors had the highest unemployment rates, Federal Reserve Bank of New York data shows, and AI is only shaking up the job market more.
Some Job Corps supporters say the trades might just be a better investment.
“These trades are what are building America and keeping America rolling,” Bryan Fox said at the Wyoming campus.
Fox teaches students how to operate and fix heavy machinery. His operator students can go on to make about $2,000 a week in apprentice programs after graduating here, he said.
“All over the United States … we're planting these kids in different places to strengthen these different communities,” Fox added.
He said many students stay in Wyoming and could help counter the state’s exodus of young people. Others will go back to their communities out of state, like Ashton Phillips, who’s training to be an electrician. He said he plans to return to Colorado as he weaved through framed structures, showing prospective students his classroom at the Sept. 17 open house.
“So this simulates a house wiring situation,” Phillips said, pointing to a room that could be a bedroom or an entryway, complete with working doorways.
He said he chose electrical work since wiring pays well.
“And it's a lot of colors, you know?” he said. “It actually makes me think and have to use my mind a little bit more.”
By 2035, federal data says employment for electricians could rise by 9%, much faster than the average for all jobs.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
