Photo I Courtesy of the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce
Jeannie Hebert, president & CEO of Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce
May 28, 2025
Trump Administration seeking to close two Central Mass. Job Corps centers as part of elimination of program nationwide
Photo | Eric Casey
Grafton Job Corps Center
Two centers in Central Massachusetts designed to offer viable career paths for disadvantaged students and help close the workforce gap in various trades are set to be shuttered at the end of June, a move supporters of the center say will undermine workforce readiness and leave nearly 500 residential students at the sites without a clear future.
Job Corps provides vocational education and career pathways for low-income, legal U.S. residents ages 16 to 24, a population at high risk for unemployment and economic instability. Both the Grafton Job Corps Center and the Shriver Job Corps Center in Devens are set to be closed at the end of June, according to local Job Corps officials, amid a wider effort to shutter the federal program entirely.
The intent of the Jobs Corps is to offer vocational training meant to produce skilled workers who can help close the workforce gap, serving as a potential pathway to employment for youth who haven’t graduated high school. Training programs on the Grafton and Shriver campuses include construction, nursing, plumbing, electrical work, and culinary arts.
Grafton and Shriver among sites across the nation which have been informally notified of a pending closure, with a formal announcement from the federal government expected May 30. The centers have 478 residential students and 59 non-residential participants, according to the website for Adams and Associates, the workforce development services and facility management firm running both facilities.
Massachusetts’ third Job Corps center is located in Chicopee.
On Thursday, Department of Labor confirmed it is implementing what the agency is calling a phased pause at 99 contract-operated Job Corps Centers in the country, which includes the Devens, Grafton, and Chicopee sites. The pause will result in the centers closing on June 30.
The Thursday press release did not include details on how or when the pause might end, and cited President Donald Trump Administration's fiscal 2026 discretionary budget request, which called for the Job Corps program to be eliminated. Department of Labor said it plans to offer impacted students referrals to job training programs or job opportunities, and will cover transportation costs to send students back to their home of record.
The 24 Job Corps Centers operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture will not be impacted by the pause.
Job Corps has already been impacted by actions taken by the federal government: in March; the U.S. Department of Labor halted background checks related to new enrollments, leaving prospective participants in limbo, while cutting wellness staff to pre-COVID levels, among other cuts, according to a May 20 email from local Job Corps officials shared by Jeannie Hebert, president & CEO of Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce.
The Blackstone Valley Hub Advanced Manufacturing program has operated as the Grafton Job Corps’ advanced manufacturing trade center. This program, typically featuring about 10 students at a time who are taught how to use equipment like CNC machines and laser engravers, has operated at full capacity with a waitlist attracting applicants from across the county, said Joscelyn Young, vice president of the Blackstone Valley Hub for Workforce Development, who added the program has achieved a 100% graduation rate over the past year and a half.
“I find it irresponsible,” Young said of the proposed closure, “Job Corps as a national program has flaws. There certainly could be improvements, but our Grafton site tends to be a top site. I think it’s irresponsible to close a program that so many young adults rely on. They're coming in from different states, and they're being told they're just going to be put on a bus to go back to wherever they came from. They don't have the support systems, and these are kids with very high motivation levels to be working members of the community.”
Four out of five students enrolled in the advanced manufacturing program in Grafton have had immediate work placements from the program at companies, include Worcester-based Wirefab, Inc. and Boch Knives, a subsidiary of French-German firm Villeroy & Boch with a location in Franklin.
One Grafton student expressing concern over the potential demise of Job Corps is Eva Rosa, who said she hopes future generations are able to benefit from the program as she has.
“When my mother signed me up [for Job Corps], I was a drifting high school student with no real idea what I wanted to do, and much less how to get there,” Rosa said in a written statement provided by Young. “While Job Corps helped me discover my passion for carpentry and creating things that will help out the people of my community, the BVHub then helped me become the best version of myself. Through both of these programs I learned better people skills, confidence in my abilities, and reignited my thirst for knowledge and growth I had lost.”
Hebert said she is heartbroken by the plans to shutter the Grafton facility, saying the center has had a tremendous positive impact both for both local employers and students and the sudden closure threatens to throw students' lives into disarray.
“The facility in Grafton is like a college campus,” Hebert said. “It's been a good organization for these kids in many ways, because it's regimented. It's almost military. It gives them rules and regulations and requirements, and it teaches them how to be really good employees when they're out there in the world, and good people too.”
With the center’s population coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, the rapid closure of the center will leave enrollees with few employment prospects and has left those involved scrambling to figure out potential educational and living arrangements for residential students, Hebert said.
“Many of them have no family. They have no home. They're virtually homeless, “ Hebert said. “We work closely with them. Our teachers are great. They're like part of the family.”
Hebert added the cuts with impact programs supported through MassHire and will have a domino effect through the workforce community.
The 2025 Job Corps Transparency Report was released in April amid efforts by President Donald Trump Administration to shutter the 61-year-old program administrated by the Department of Labor. Stats in the report showed the Grafton facility outperforms the average Job Corps center, with a traditional graduate rate of 42.7% in 2023, 10 percentage points higher than the national average.
The report focused on the 2023 program year, a time where the program was still recovering from the impacts of the COVID pandemic. A lack of available technology made the struggle to remote learning difficult, according to a 2021 article from the Washington Post highlighting an inspector general report, which outlined serious problems with implementing COVID-19 protocols at Job Corps sites.
The Trump Administration has cited high costs and low graduation rates as the rationale behind eliminating Job Corps, with the administration referring to the program in its fiscal 2026 discretionary budget request as a failed experiment, citing issues with violence, drug infractions, and deaths at Job Corps facilities.
Elimination of the program would lead to a decrease of $1.58 billion in federal spending, according to the budget request. Even though the federal budget is still working its way through Congress, the Trump Administration has moved forward with shuttering the program.
Christine Feroli, an official with the Department of Labor’s media team, did not respond to an email from WBJ requesting more details on the rationale behind the closure of the Grafton site.
Supporters of Job Corps argue the program’s costs are worth its outcomes, with the National Job Corps Association saying it’s the most effective high school dropout recovery program available.
With 6.7 million American youth 16-24 unemployed, the organization argues each of these youth impose an annual cost of $51,350 on taxpayers and society, resulting in $344 billion in costs each year, according to stats on NJCA’s website.
With an understanding that some Job Corps centers across the country have issues, Hebert said eliminating the program entirely was a short-sighted approach lacking clear communication or planning.
“To just blindly cut a program that is so meaningful and is helping these young adults become good citizens, good employees, and good taxpayers, is ridiculous,” Hebert said. “It's throwing the baby out with the bath water, and to have no plan for where these students can go is unconscionable. I can't say enough good things about [the program]. I was shocked here that it’s being done with no plan whatsoever for these hundreds of students, and not to mention what's going to happen to all the buildings in Grafton. What's going to happen to the administrators, the equipment, or the teachers?”
Anthony Galgano, CEO of True Robotics in Worcester, cited his experiences with one graduate of the Blackstone Valley Hub Advanced Manufacturing program as an example that provides to the community.
The program “provides young people with hands-on experience and technical skills that are essential in today’s workforce, while giving companies like ours access to motivated, trainable talent," Galgano wrote in a statement provided to WBJ by Young. “We’re grateful for the partnership and proud to support the development of future innovators through this initiative.”
The National Association of Home Builders has joined efforts to prevent the elimination of Job Corps, saying in a post on its website the program’s elimination will exacerbate the nation’s skilled labor shortage, raise construction costs, and harm housing affordability.
The planned elimination of the Job Corps has caught the attention of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
“I know when we’ve had a discussion on the cost,” Collins said at a Senate Appropriations hearing on Thursday. “It is so much more expensive if someone because of the influence and lack of support ends up addicted or sex trafficked or in jail, than it is to have them go to a Job Corps center and receive the guidance skills that they need to turn around their lives.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been updated to reflect the Department of Labor's confirmation contract-operated Job Corps Centers will be closed on June 30.
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
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