The MTC Institute recently published a report titled Job Corps: Promoting Success for Hispanic Youth.  This report is available for download and printing at: http://www.mtctrains.com/institute/publications/PromotingSuccessForHispanicYouth.pdf

Increasingly Hispanics are playing a significant role in shaping the future of America. It is more important than ever that programs for Hispanic youth provide substantive assistance and support. To become more effective, program operators and staff must understand the demographic shift, the Hispanic culture, and the strengths and barriers faced by many young Hispanics.

As the Hispanic population emerges as America's largest ethnic minority, its youth face exceptional challenges. As a group, they are:

*          Younger

*          More economically challenged

*          Less educationally prepared, and

*          Face language and cultural barriers.

The U.S. labor force is growing more diverse. Major demographic shifts are redefining who America is and what is required to compete and ultimately succeed.

In 2004 the U.S. Hispanic population reached 41.3 million, and it continues to grow. The social, economic, and political implications of this trend are significant. A sizeable portion of Hispanic youth, 27.4 percent, lives in poverty. Every year the Job Corps program serves close to 65,000 youth. In light of the demographic shift taking place in the United States, programs that are targeting disadvantaged youth must reexamine their efforts to recruit Hispanic youth and work to identify the needs of this often underserved and underrepresented group.

The Department of Labor's (DOL) Office of the 21st Century Workforce is working to ensure that all Hispanic American workers have the opportunity to equip themselves with the necessary tools to succeed in their careers in whatever field they choose. The changing and dynamic global economy requires America's 21st Century workforce adjust to these changes to remain competitive in the 21st Century economy.

Job Corps, as a leader in workforce development, must incorporate strategies to actively engage Hispanic youth and their families, embrace their cultural uniqueness, and create a common understanding of center experience and expectations. Understanding the Hispanic perspective is critical to delivering effective education and training programs and improving long-term job placement. Hispanic students entering Job Corps programs face many challenges including:

• Competing obligations

• English language difficulties

• Early entry into the workforce

• Low expectations and standards

• Low educational attainment

Programs often miss opportunities to make the most of the positive aspects of ethnic and immigrant culture. In the Hispanic community in particular, these attributes include:

• Strength of family

• Valuing education

• Strong work ethic

• Determination to succeed

Many cultural attitudes and beliefs regarding education, training, family, and work are affected by circumstance. Hispanics as a group are younger, more likely to be employed, and have larger families than the average U.S. resident. Poverty rates are high, particularly for families headed by single Hispanic women.

In 2001, poverty rates for Hispanic families headed by a woman exceeded 35 percent. An overwhelming number of Hispanic youth leave school inadequately prepared to meet the demands of a changing labor market. Hispanic students are notably behind their counterparts in core academic skills. Hispanic youth drop out of school at rates much higher than those of either blacks or non-Hispanic whites. For those students that do graduate from high school on time only 53 percent are considered “minimally qualified” to attend college compared to 70 percent of non-Hispanic white high school graduates.

To attract students, Job Corps must develop a better understanding of Hispanic youth and their needs and improve the opportunities for their education and life success. It must identify strategies to recruit and effectively serve Hispanic youth and their families if it is to meet its full service objective. Many Hispanic students come from small communities and are likely to return to those communities after their Job Corps training is complete.

For some there will be jobs for them to return to but for many there will not. Involving parents and families in a discussion can help to better clarify needs, expectations,

and student goals. Job Corps' strength is in its leadership in education and training and its ability to adapt given changing workforce, education, and training requirements.

The United States is becoming more ethnically diverse, and Hispanics are the largest and fastest growing minority segment of the U.S. population. This growth is due largely to the rising birth rate. Roughly 14.7 percent of the U.S. population is Hispanic. The Hispanic population in the past year alone grew at a rate that was three times that of the total population. In 23 of 50 states Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority. Hispanics surpass African- Americans in their share of the U.S. population. Following the rising Hispanic birthrate, immigration is second in adding to this growing population, particularly in the southern and western United States. (See Figure 1.) The rate of Hispanic growth since the 1990 census in states like Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee ranges from 300 to 500 percent. Hispanics are no longer regionally concentrated in traditionally Hispanic states like California, Texas or Florida.

As noted above, these major demographic shifts continue to transform the U.S. economy. The supply of qualified workers in the United States is dwindling as large segments of skilled and educated workers steadily move into retirement. Today six out of every ten jobs require education and training beyond high school. Workforce training and education professionals are the frontline responders to this growing workforce development crisis. They must understand the dynamics of a changing population and their needs, as well as the needs of employers to be successful in educating,

training, and placing students in high wage jobs. Given these rapidly changing demographics and workforce projections, Job Corps must increase the number of well-prepared students entering the labor market. In working with the growing population of

Hispanic students, Job Corps must understand that the U.S. Hispanic identity is complex and blends multiple countries, cultures, and generations.

As a whole, the Hispanic population holds an array of attitudes, beliefs, and values that are distinct from other segments of the population, but it also contains many subgroups, each unique. Differences within the Hispanic population are most pronounced between native and foreign-born Hispanics. As a leader in workforce development, Job Corps must incorporate strategies to actively engage and embrace Hispanic families in the Job Corps process. Including families in the process will improve the effective strategies to retain them will prepare the youth to take advantage of career opportunities in a high growth and rapidly changing demand-driven market. Demographic changes make it essential that Job Corps reexamine its programs and services to better serve this segment of the population that today constitutes the largest minority group in the country.

By the year 2050, minorities will make up a sizeable share of the U.S. labor force. Birth, immigration and death rates, and the proportion of people seeking employment all are factors that affect the size of the U.S.labor force. One in eight people in the United States is of Hispanic origin. One in five children under the age of 18 is Hispanic. Between 2002 and 2012, the number of Hispanic workers is projected to increase by nearly 6 million—a growth rate that is three times that of non-Hispanic workers. The Hispanic share of the workforce will continue to grow, reaching an estimated one fourth of the entire workforce by 2050.9 (See Figure 2.)

Hispanics will have an important impact on public policy over the next 20 years. Civilian labor force participation rates and employment-population ratios evidence steady growth in the Hispanic population. (The employment-population ratio measures persons employed as a percent of the population.) Recent figures indicate that the employment-population ratio for Hispanics (63.9 percent) is comparable to that for whites (63.2 percent), and higher than that for blacks (57 percent).

A significant proportion of the growth in the U.S. Hispanic population over the previous decades was due to immigration. Today's growth is the result of the birthrate: the number of U.S.-born Hispanic babies outnumbers new Hispanic immigrants. The immerging

profile of the Hispanic population is one that is dominated by the young. Most Hispanic immigrants are young adults in their child-bearing years, which contributes to the relative youth of the Hispanic population overall.

Hispanics have gained a national presence. One half of the national population growth between July 2003 and July 2004 is from the growth in the Hispanic population alone. In July 2004 Hispanics numbered 41.3 million out of a population of 293.7 million, not including the 3.9 million Hispanics in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

The slow overall U.S. population growth rate has many calling attention to the potential burden the future holds for the economic dependency of many on few. A large segment of the U.S. workforce is entering retirement and preparing to exit the workforce, taking

with them education, skill, and qualifications that are not readily restorable. By 2050, for every 100 people working, an estimated 111 people will not be working. It is expected that 44 of the 111 non-workers will be children under the age of 16. Just as the workforce is shrinking, however, the need for skilled and qualified workers is growing. By 2012,

the number of jobs requiring advanced skills will grow at twice the rate of those requiring basic skills.

Job opportunity varies greatly depending on one's level of education and training. While basic education is the essential foundation for the skills and knowledge needed to secure a high paying job, a high school degree does not translate into financial stability in today's labor market. Given the current economic and demographic trends, more minority students will require postsecondary education and increased skill to compete successfully in the technically demanding labor market.

The MTC Institute is the research division of Management & Training Corporation (MTC), an international private contractor serving approximately 12,000 students in 24 Job Corps centers nationwide and about 9,700 offenders who reside in privately managed correctional facilities in the US, Canada, and Australia.