South Bronx Job Corporation Center — Local services in New York

I have a bachelor's degree, but have been unable to maintain employment due to autism, ADHD, and dyspraxia. I went to Job Corps hoping to develop a specific skillset that would make me employable. I wasn’t given an assessment to determine which track was best for me, but that didn’t matter to me at the time, because the Computer Technician track stood out as the best choice due to its high earning potential relatively low motor skill barrier.

The training was a mix of live lectures and self-study using an online textbook. Students learned how to troubleshoot and repair computers in theory only. This model makes sense for a traditional academic discipline, but not for a blue collar trade. We weren't even allowed to use the command terminal! There were unplugged dummy computers for us to tinker with during class hours, but we weren't given any instruction in doing so. Instead, the teacher prioritized his lectures, employing a strategy that educators call “teaching to the test”. In fact, he gave us at least 20% of the real questions from the real certification tests, sourced from an illegal exam dump. He would brag about how nearly all of the students he sends to take the exam pass it, but after any student passed, he would show them exam dump questions and ask which ones were on the test so that he would know which answers to give out.

Computer Technician trainees are offered one internship, with a company called ASI. During this internship, students go to public schools in the city, unbox computers, and plug them in. The work done during this internship does not perfectly correspond to the certifications that trainees work to obtain, because that certification is for building and repairing computers, not merely plugging them in. Therefore, I assumed that the internship had no predictive power vis-à-vis my future as a Computer Technician, and I was not deterred by my boss’s complaints that I work too slowly (as is expected of somebody who’s dyspraxic).

After receiving my A+, I applied for Advanced Training, and Job Corps made me wait idly for two months before I was rejected because of my “case notes”. I asked the Advanced Training correspondent for a copy of my case notes, and he said I was the first student to ever ask for that! And according to my case notes, I was rejected for 1. working too slowly during my internship, 2. excessively sweating during my internship (as is to be expected when you’re a heavy guy working in poor schools without air conditioning during the summer), and 3. repeatedly failing to sign the 9pm pre-bedtime roll call.

After being removed from the program, I submitted applications for two months before I landed a job building PCs, and after two days of doing my job, I was fired. It turned out that my employer didn’t want somebody who built computers nearly six times as slowly as the rest of the team. I spent the next several months applying for non-hardware-centric jobs, but the A+ wasn’t good enough to get me in.

You may feel that it is my responsibility as a dyspraxic person to know better than to attend trade school, but Job Corps receives taxpayer funding because the US government believes they help chronically unemployed people become employable. If they could not help me specifically, then the least they could do is not waste my time, because I could have used that time pursuing other opportunities, ones that would have increased my chances of becoming a contributing member of society. When I contacted them in the first place, I told them that I had been unable to maintain employment because of my disability, and they still encouraged me to enroll. Therefore, they have as much responsibility for wasting my time as I do, and this makes them a failure as a charitable...

This is school is a very unorganized.And when I was residential they would only sometimes give day passes at 4:00pm and they also have strict rules on coming to school early during weekend passes which I didn’t like.Which is one the reasons I become non-residential.My friends also told me there was no day passes for a month which is crazy to me because of certain students the whole school who were non-residential were suffering the consequences.They also give PTOS out and fair warning,they also count UAS which are unexcused absences and if you get 13 your out of the program.Another that I didn’t like about this school is because some students acted like little kids and didn’t follow the rules there young delinquents.And I also didn’t like the fact that they didn’t count my doctor notes that I had the day I missed some days to school so I got a couple UA because of this miscommunication.A note to know is that if you do go to this school just do what you gotta do and also make sure to tell Wellness if you have a Dr appointments and show them your doctor notes so you don’t risk getting a UA like I did,I was in culinary and the Chef was really nice but I felt bad for him because he also had to deal with stupidity and young delinquents.He is a very good teacher.And if you really want to go for something in a trade and you actually have experience or like doing it in your spare time I say go for it...

I attended her in 2004 got my ged within 3 months, but I'll never forget the therapist they had there, I forget his name but he was there in January 2004, he evaluated me before I was able to enter job corps he told me that I may have blackouts and hurt someone without knowing it that, there's a chance I cant attend job corps, I was shocked when he said it, then he said if I see him every week I'll be allowed to attend, but little did I know he would have sessions with me, ask me to turn Around in my uniform, comment on my body, try to give me his credit card to buy things, grouping me in sessions, and watching me from down the hallways ,he would follow me upstairs to the girls floor claiming to check on me, and because he was the therapist he was able to go anywhere in the building, I couldn't believe this was all happening, I even shared it with my boyfriend at the time, he was like that's not right, you need to report him, honestly I should've because how many other girls was he doing this too. I just felt so scared there and didn't want to be left alone with him, but I had to see him every week per job corps rules. I was about 21 around that time and to this day it still hunts me that he wanted sexual acts from me and touching me inappropriately , it feels good to get that off my chest I've been carrying that so long, I really hope he is not still employed there or hopefully he...