08.18.14

Hoeven Marks 20th Anniversary of Burdick Job Corps Center

MINOT, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven today marked the 20th anniversary of the Quentin N. Burdick Job Corps Center at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Minot. Today’s ceremony also marks the 50th anniversary of the federal Job Corps program and is the start of five days of events, ending with commencement and graduation on Friday, August 22.

“Our businesses need access to a high-quality, skilled workforce in order to meet the demands of our state’s fast-growing economy,” Hoeven said. “The Burdick Job Corps Center and all of North Dakota’s education institutions play a vital role in filling that need. Your hard work over the past twenty years has helped give our young people the skills they need to launch their careers and provide a better future for themselves and their families.”

Founded in 1964, the Job Corps program provides free education and training to low-income young adults, while also helping to place them in jobs after graduation. The Burdick Job Corps Center opened in September 1994 and provides students with career technical training, advanced career training, independent living skills and assistance in acquiring their high school diploma or GED, if needed. Since its opening, the center has graduated over 2,000 students. The center currently serves 197 students and maintains outreach office in Bismarck, Fargo and Grand Forks.

Hoeven has worked both as governor of North Dakota and now in the U.S. Senate to support the Minot center, including working through his position on the Senate Appropriations Committee to secure funding for the Job Corps program. In April, Senator Hoeven joined 32 of his Senate colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, urging them to support continued funding of the Job Corps program. Last November, Hoeven also wrote a letter in support of the Burdick Job Corps Center’s recent application to extend its Job Corps contract with the Department of Labor (DOL).