Is Advanced Training Right For You?

Is Advanced Training Right For You?

In Advanced Training, you will build on your basic training and fine-tune your skills in the industry of your choice.

Job Corps offers 20 Advanced Training programs in 8 different industries to interested and qualified students. 

This training will be at an accelerated pace and will provide you with the additional training, techniques, and credentials in your chosen field.

Advanced Training Programs are offered at different Job Corps locations depending on the program.

All the benefits Job Corps provides for its students, such as housing, food, a weekly allowance, and basic medical care are still available during Advanced Training. 

Advanced Training will help you stand out to potential employers. 

Job Corps’ Advanced Training programs are offered at centers across the country. Keep in mind, though, the program you are interested in won’t necessarily be at the center where you completed your basic training, so be prepared to move to another city for the length of your training. You can always apply for jobs in your hometown or another city after you leave Job Corps. 

The are several Job Corps centers with Advanced Training opportunities. The centers in orange have Advanced Training Programs. You can look in MyPACE to find the centers that have the Advanced Training that fits your career goals. 

Click on the picture to watch the video. It is a hyperlink to the video for Advanced Computer System Administration Training program. This is a good example of how Advanced Training Programs work (i.e. the training, benefits, requirements, etc.)

This video can be found on the MyPACE Advanced training page or on the DOL Job Corps YouTube page.

• Blow are some examples of Advanced Training options within the transportation field.
  
  
• Airlines - Ramp Agent, Reservationist, etc.
  
  
• Passenger Trains - Conductor, On-board Service Attendant, Railcar Repairer, etc.
  
  
• Barge Lines - Tanker person, Deckhand.
  
  
• Freight Trains - Intermodal worker, Dispatcher, etc.,

Myth busters. Did you know?

Myth - Advanced Training is the same as college.

Truth - Some advanced training programs can require college classes but not all. Advanced Training is practical industry training that is hands-on at centers. Advanced Training earns industry credentials, not necessarily a college degree, unless the Advanced Training program requires it. Advanced Career Training is college at Job Corps.

Myth - I will be stuck at job corps forever trying to finish.

Truth - Advanced Training programs are time-specific based upon the program and industry. Basic and Advanced Training can be completed in three years or less.

What are the advantages?

When you successfully complete the advanced training, and obtained advanced skills and industry-specific knowledge, there will be more career options available to you. You will also get a better chance of getting a higher salary with your advanced industry credential.

When deciding if you want to consider Advanced Training, you will want to determine if your career pathway has offerings for Advanced Training in your field of interest. If so, determine if it’s located at a Job Corps Center you are willing to move to and/or live. 

You can find out if your career path has advanced training, by clicking on the occupations link at the top of the, search for the career title, click on it and scroll all the way down to the bottom to find out of there is advanced training available for that career path.

Once you have found a career that has Advanced Training you can add it to your favorite by clicking on the Add to Favorite button. Follow the link below for more information on how to add Advanced Training to your favorite occupation list. 

How to Favorite Advanced Training

Important Note: Only Job Training Match occupations (those badged with the JTM Circle) will display Advanced Training choices. Check the Related Occupations at Different Levels of Education section of the chosen occupation to find occupations with that badge. Click on the name of the occupation to go to its Occupation Page.  

The Job Corps Program page is where you will see a list of the available Advanced Training programs based upon your career choice. You can get more details about each program by clicking the “Learn more about this program” button.

Job Corps offers 20 Advanced Training programs in 8 different industries to interested and qualified students. Your career counselors and instructors will help guide you through the application process and will prepare you for this next step in your career journey. 

Once you click into a program, it will take you to the details of the program. The most important information about the program can be found here and in the Program Brochure. Every Advanced Training program has the same categories of information for students to understand the requirements, eligibility and benefits of each program.

You can find the location and contact information for the advanced training program using the link below.

Advanced Training Program

The Program Description area gives an overview of what the program has to offer including a video showing an example of the training program in action. 

The Program Brochure PDF download is where you will see a detailed, colorful document to read through for more information about the program.

When you click on the Program Brochure, you will see the specific details of the Advanced Training program you searched.

The Yellow Arrow shows you the Overview of advanced training program including the subject areas you will learn during the program.

The Program Entry Requirements include the specifics for what it will take for students to be accepted into that training program. 

The Salary Range is key to understanding the earning potential when you finish the Advanced Training program. Keep in mind salary information will vary by location and company. 

And finally, the Program Expectations are the professional practices students must adhere to in order to complete specific Advanced Training Programs.

Cost in Time

• Advanced Training length of program can vary by program.
  
  
• The Advanced Training program usually starts after the completion of your basic Job Corps training.
   
• If you got accepted into the program, you can stay up to three years in Job Corps (including your basic training).

Cost in Dollars

The Advanced Training at Job Corps is completely free for you.

Once you have completed the Advanced Training, you will be able to start at a higher salary than entry level jobs.

Job Corps continues to provide benefits while student complete their Advanced Training program. This include; housing, medical care, and weekly allowance.

The requirements for each Advanced Training program will vary by program. But the Job Corps specific requirements include:

• Completion of the basic Job Corps training program and having 100% TAR completion.
  
  
• Have your high school diploma or GED.
  
  
• Have a minimum appropriate TABE scores in both Reading and Math (this will vary by Advanced Training Programs).
  
  
• Be at least 17 year old, for program entry with parental consent.
  
  
• Have good to excellent center behavioral record including attendance and progress report.
  
  
• Have health clearance from Job Corps Center showing you have no physical or mental health issues that impact performance.

Career Plan

When you’re navigating MyPACE, it will help you see your goals and plans for your career pathway. Your career plan is an ongoing process that you need to review often to make sure you stay on task with your goals. If you choose Advanced Training as a career pathway, it is necessary to set mid-term and short-term goals. These goals will help you to stay focused during your training program and ultimately lead you through the phases in your career journey. Advanced Training can be one step in your career journey.

Your “Why” or reason for taking Advanced Training will determine and define your Mid-term goal.  

Your Short-term goal includes the specific Advanced Training plan and goals you will accomplish including the timeframe for completion and what the outcome will be from your training.

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Return on Investment

How much time and money should you invest in your future?

In this lesson, we will be talking about return on investment, in order to find out if your investment in education is worth your time and money.

Return on investment include, cost time or money up-front. Yield returns or profit down the road.

A calculation of the amount of profit or loss from an investment, and an amount made minus amount invested equal return on investment.

What would you do, if I asked you for 10 dollars today, but agreed to pay you back 15 dollars next week, would you do it?

If you say yes, you made a smart investment! The return on investment is 5 dollars, or 50 percent. 

Amount made minus amount invested, equal Return on Investment. 15 minus 10 equal 5.

Percent for return on investment is equal to return on investment divided by amount invested.

But now what would you do, if I asked you to pay back sixty five thousand dollars over the next 15 years, but in exchange you would make one million dollars. Would you do it?

If you say yes to this huge investment, you really understand how to play the game. The Return on investment is $935,000, or roughly one 1500 percent. 

This is roughly how an investment in a B.A. works. The 65,000 dollars is the total loan, the 15 years is the 5 years for the Bachelor of Art. plus the 10 years to pay off the loan. The million dollars is the typical difference in wages over a lifetime of work between an high school diploma holder and a B A holder.  

Stock market investors consider a great return on investment to be 15 percent.  This is 100 times that!

Educational Investments, Input 1: Time.

The chart below shows you approximately how long it would take to complete the education level you are working toward. For example, the time length for Advanced Training is a minimum of one year but you can also stay in the program for up to two years to acquire more training with better pay. 

Next we have the apprenticeship program which required one to four years of training, depending on your chosen career.

Below the apprenticeship program, you have the entry level job training which do not have a specific amount of time because, you will be on the job working while learning and getting hands on experience. 

Below the entry level job training program, is the college degree program. College are split into several different level of education ranging from associate to advanced degree. The more education you acquired, the higher the degree which will result in a higher paying job. An associate degree usually required two years of college, a bachelor is four years, and a master or advanced degree is usually six years of college or more. 

After the college program, we have the armed services which is the military. You can join the military after obtaining your high school diploma or GED at Job Corps. After joining the military, you can select what kind of career you would like to go for, depending on how well you did on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test. 

Educational Investment, Input 2: Money.

The chart below shows you approximately how much it would cost to obtain a certain level of college degree. For example, the average cost for an associate degree is around 3440 dollars per semester, and will required an average of two years to complete, so to calculate the actual cost of an associate degree, you would need to take 3440 x 4, since there are 4 semesters in 4 years, (2 semesters for each year). The Bachelor degree cost can range from 94010 - 64,974 dollars, or more depending on the type of degree you are planning to get. The advanced degree can range from 37,500 - 68,5047 dollars (plus the cost of the Bachelor degree). The reason the advanced degree cost so much is because you usually need to have a bachelor degree before you can be enrolled into an advanced degree.

But this does investment actually pay off? Lets run the numbers with an actual example from My PACE.

45 years of work times x 63,010 = 2,835,450 dollars in a lifetime.

If you look at the chart below, you will see that the higher degree you get, the more money you can make over a life time or 45 years of work.

Now lets go ahead and practice some quick math to determine the annual salaries for some of these key levels.

High School Diploma carrier usually makes some where around, 746 dollars per week. If we take 746 x 52 = 38,792 dollars per year.

Now lets calculate how much you can earn, if you have an associate degree. An associate degree holder will make an average of 887 dollars per week. We can take that, and times it by 52 weeks. That will give us about 46,896 dollars per year. An associate degree will yield a better return because it requires more amount of schooling, and if you went for a bachelor degree, the percent increases to over 50 percent. As you can see, the higher the education, the more money you will make. Of course higher degree also means higher cost of education.

Grands, Scholarships and Subsidized Loans.

There are many ways to apply for loan, scholarships and subsidize loans. If you are attending Job Corps, most likely you are qualified for some financial assistant to help you with your college tuition cost. 

Note that, these calculations are national averages which, given that you have met Job Corps’ low-income eligibility requirements, are pretty much a worst-case scenario. College should cost much less for you or possibly nothing, or maybe just a small yearly loan that will be easily paid back with the increased income. Moreover, lenders will adjust your repayment terms if you call them to negotiate and prove your salary can only handle lower payments. All of these options will be discussed in more depth including the use of U.S. News and World Report’s net price calculator shown here in the College Pathway lesson. We just want students to explore whether or not the cost of additional education is probably worth it here. How to pay for it will be worked out in that later lesson. This lesson is simply about calculating whether the investment of time and money seems worth it. In some cases it will not be.

Is it really all about the Benjamin's?

This is not to say that a job that is a less sound investment than a related one is definitely a worse job. Remember lesson 1 regarding money and happiness. We just want to make sure you are going into planning for your future with your eyes wide open. Good career planning involves informing yourself of these options and outcomes before it is too late.

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