Workforce Development Links

Other Workforce Development Initiatives

The Workforce Development section of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department has established linkages with local workforce development boards and community based organizations (CBO) throughout the state to collaborate on providing youth with a comprehensive array of services that will assist them in making a successful transition back to the community.

Many of the CBO relationships are used to enhance programs that already exist either through PIE, CATE or campus work programs. Examples of these relationships are the following:

Evins Regional Juvenile Center - Tutoring Program

The tutoring program allows those youth who have completed their studies to tutor their peers towards completion of their General Educational Development (GED) Certificate and by providing them with classroom instruction on Job Readiness Training. The goals of the program are as follows:

Provide paid work experience for our students
Develop leadership skills
Role model positive behavior
Enhance student's possibilities of securing employment upon release
Reduce recidivism

The Lower Rio Grande Workforce Development Board supports this program. Students who participate as tutors receive a $50 training stipend.

Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex - Industrial Maintenance Course & Network Cabling

These training classes are available to both males and females at the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex. Texas State Technical College (TSTC) is providing an industrial maintenance course, which consists of six 48-hour classes.

The students receive a "Short Term" certificate for completing the first 3 classes and "Long Term" certificate for completing all six classes. They also receive a fifty-dollar incentive for each of the six courses they successfully complete plus ½ credit towards their high school diploma. Students attend class for three hours a day. The course includes basic industrial Electricity, Introduction to Hydraulics and Pneumatics, Electric Motors, Electronic Controls, and Programmable Logic controllers.

TSTC also provides a network cabling class. This class is directed at developing the entry-level job skills required to obtain career opportunities in the rapidly expanding and global market known as telecommunications. Training will cover Introduction To Telecommunications and Introduction to Network Cabling ¾ Copper-Based Systems.

Al Price State Juvenile Correctional Facility - Network Cabling Courses TJJD is partnering with Gulf Coast Trades Center and Houston Works USA to provide a continuum of services to TJJD youth that are returning to the Harris County area once transferred to parole.

These services begin in the facility and continue throughout the youth's time on parole. The services are provided through various federal grants that are geared towards at-risk youth. Eligible youth will be assigned a case manager from HoustonWorks, who will follow them through their stay with TJJD and make sure the youth are working towards their GED or high school diploma, specialized treatment, and occupational skills training in network cabling.

Once on parole in Harris County youth will work with the HoustonWorks case worker more intensely to identify any additional needs in areas such as employability skills, occupational skills training, education, specialized treatment and other support services. The network cabling course is directed at developing the entry-level job skills required to obtain career opportunities in the rapidly expanding and global market known as telecommunications.