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Vocational/Job Training 

Providing at-risk youth with vocational training and work opportunities is a common strategy to 

discourage future delinquency and involvement with the justice system. Of special concern are 

disconnected youths—those out of school, out of work, and in other high-risk situations. More than one 

third of all public school students in the United States drop out before they graduate, including about 

half of all African American and Hispanic students (Greene and Forster 2003). School dropouts, juvenile 

offenders, youths aging out of foster care with low high school completion rates, and youths with 

disabilities all face significant challenges to gainful and legal employment. To find jobs, they need 

effective supports (Brown and Thakur 2006; Larson and Turner 2002; Platt, Casey, and Faessel 2006). 

The prevention literature emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach for youth that includes 

vocational services to address the education and workforce needs (Jekielek, Cochran, and Hair 2002; 

Partee 2003; Zabel and Nigro 2007). Vocational or job training programs that take a preventive approach 

typically concentrate on attainment of basic skills competencies, opportunities for academic and 

occupational training, and exposure to the job market and employment. Depending on their emphasis, 

vocational training and employment programs address several risk factors, including academic failure, 

alienation and rebelliousness, association with delinquent and violent peers, and low commitment to 

school. At the same time, vocational training enhances protective factors by providing job skills, onthe-job experiences, and recognition for work performed. Programs built on a developmental approach 

help young people avoid high-risk behavior and promote academic and work-readiness skills as well 

as the personal attributes employers seek (Brown and Thakur 2006). 

Employment and vocational programs, which vary in program intensity and expense, include 

 Career curricula. These programs are usually incorporated into high school and summer

programs that serve at-risk youth.

 Summer work and subsidized employment. These programs generally are limited to several

months.

 Short-term training with job placement. These short-term vocational skills programs generally

last 6 months and help participants find employment.

 Long-term intensive residential programs. These programs provide vocational and life skills

training, general education, and job placement.

Suggested Reference: Development Services Group, Inc. 2010. “Vocational Job Training.” Literature review. Washington, D.C.: 

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. https://www.ojjdp.gov/mpg/litreviews/Vocational_Job_Training.pdf

Prepared by Development Services Group, Inc., under cooperative agreement number 2013–JF–FX–K002. Points of view or 

opinions expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of 

OJJDP or the U.S. Department of Justice.
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention www.ojjdp.gov 2

Successful employment training programs for at-risk youth prepare participants for employment, 

provide counseling and other support services, provide job placements, and make supports available 

to help participants retain their employment. This comprehensive approach requires collaboration 

among an array of service agencies and providers (Brown and Thakur 2006).

In an attempt to provide comprehensive services, including long-term work training, Congress in 1998 

passed the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). This legislation combined the short-term youth summer 

jobs program and the year-round programs previously provided through the Job Training Partnership 

Act into a more comprehensive vocational program. The WIA, administered by the U.S. Department of 

Labor, requires states to use approximately one third of the funds to serve out-of-school youth. This 

requirement and the WIA’s close collaboration with the juvenile justice system provide a preventive 

approach to addressing the needs of high-risk youth. Local programs supported by WIA funds mobilize 

collaborative efforts among agencies to provide a range of services. Program activities may include 

tutoring (leading to a high school degree or GED), internships, job shadowing, work experience, adult 

mentoring, and comprehensive guidance and counseling. Evaluations of the WIA programs highlight 

challenges in providing comprehensive services to out-of-school youth because of limited funding 

(Barnow and King 2005; Fisher, Montgomery, and Gardner 2008) and the difficulty in developing and 

coordinating comprehensive vocational services tailored to the unique needs of youth (Allen 2002). Job 

Corps and YouthBuild are two vocational/job training programs that utilize WIA funds.

Job Corps, one of the most renowned employment programs, was originally created by the Economic 

Opportunity Act of 1964. Job Corps serves more than 60,000 young adults annually and has enrolled 

more than 2 million since its inception. It provides remedial education, GED preparation, vocational 

training, job placements assistance, and other supports to economically disadvantaged young people 

ages 16 to 24. The average Job Corps participant spends about 8 months in the program and receives 

more than a thousand hours of education and training. There is a 2-week orientation and assessment 

of skills and interests, after which participants receive a mix of vocational and academic instruction 

designed to meet their needs. Job Corps participants reside in dormitories and receive room and board 

along with a wide range of services. In some programs, residential services are not provided.

The YouthBuild program also targets out-of-school youths ages 16 to 24. It includes youths who have 

been adjudicated, are aging out of foster care, and are low income. YouthBuild has more than 200 

YouthBuild grants across the country and serves more than 5,000 young people each year. The program 

provides participants with academic instruction along with occupational skills training while they 

build affordable housing in their communities.

Other shorter and less intensive vocational training programs include those used in high schools and 

as summer programs. These programs—such as the Summer Career Exploration Program (SCEP), and 

Career Academy—often target youths from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and seek to 

reduce the number of students who drop out of school before getting their degree.

Theoretical Foundation

Much has been written about the complex relationship between crime and unemployment (Bushway 

and Reuter 2002; MacKenzie 2006; Hirschi 1969). Social control theory (Hirschi 1969), applied to the 

workplace, suggests that supervision and expected behaviors experienced at the job reduce the 

possibility that youths will engage in delinquent behavior. Social learning theory (Bandura 1997), applied 

to the workplace, suggests that appropriate behavior can be learned, not only from observation and 

modeling of family behaviors, but also from role models observed at work. Economic strain theory,

another of the many theories used to explain delinquency, posits that strain resulting from economic 
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pressures can place at-risk adolescents who realize their dismal employment prospects at heightened 

risk for delinquency (Wester, MacDonald, and Lewis 2008). The young male’s decision to engage in 

crime is thought to be strongly affected by his bleak employment opportunities in the legitimate labor 

market. According to the economic model of crime, employment reduces the probability of engaging 

in crime possibly for one or more of several reasons, including increased income, reduced free time 

available for criminal activity, and the promotion of conventional norms (Ihlanfeldt 2006). Local labor 

market opportunities that are confined to the low-wage service sector have also been regarded as 

influencing the likelihood of violent delinquency (Bellair, Roscigno, and Mcnulty 2003).

Outcome Evidence

A 2002 review (Public/Private Ventures 2002) of outcome evaluations of employment and vocational 

skills training programs conducted in the 1990s found that, unfortunately, most of the programs had 

negligible or only very modest success. The findings indicate that the impact of employment and 

vocational skills training on delinquency and protective factors was mixed. The authors called for more 

rigorous evaluation and highlighted the shortcomings of the program evaluations, which make it 

difficult to assess the true potential of the programs. For example, the follow-up period examined in 

some studies may have been too brief to document long-term employment gains. Programs that did 

not show strong outcomes were found to have benefited the highest-need participants while doing little 

for the majority of participants who were less needy. Programs often had differential results for various 

components so that programs sometimes showed positive results in only one or two of the outcomes: 

dropout rates, employment rates, average weekly earnings, or hours worked.

Job Corps, the most frequently analyzed program, was evaluated in a randomized, control study 

(Schochet, Burghardt, and Glazerman 2001; Public/Private Ventures 2002) cited by the U.S. Department 

of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse. The 4-year follow-up of the nationally representative 

sample of more than 6,000 Job Corps youths revealed that a significantly higher number of Job Corps 

participants achieved a GED than comparison group participants. Another evaluation (Jekielek, 

Cochran, and Hair 2002) revealed that Job Corps participants were slightly more likely than those in 

the control group to be employed at a 30-month follow-up, had greater long-term earnings, and were 

less likely to be enrolled in a food stamp program.

An evaluation of four YouthBuild (YB) programs in three states (Cross 2004; Jekielek, Cochran, and 

Hair 2002) indicated that 85 percent of those who were convicted of felonies before they entered the 

program had not reoffended since completing the program. In addition, two thirds of the program 

graduates who had been involved with the criminal justice system before entering the program had not 

been arrested, convicted of a misdemeanor or felony, or spent one or more nights in jail or in prison 

since completing the program. An evaluation of the YB Offender Program targeted at youth offenders 

indicated reduced recidivism and improved educational outcomes for the YB participants (Cohen and 

Piquero 2008).

A review of summer career development programs (Terzian, Moore, and Hamilton 2009) revealed few 

rigorous evaluations. Most of the programs that were evaluated appeared to have few positive 

outcomes. SCEP did not affect the frequency and duration of employment, continuation of work once 

school resumed, or school-year earnings, and the Summer Training and Education Program had no 

effect on the likelihood of employment. Only Upward Bound increased employment 3 years after the 

program.

In summary, the available evidence regarding success of employment and vocational skills training 

programs is mixed (Public/Private Ventures 2002). While some positive outcomes have been 
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention www.ojjdp.gov 4

documented, they are often not large in magnitude and may be greatest for a small percentage of 

participants—typically those at highest risk. Shortcomings of evaluation designs may also result in 

failure to detect positive effects. Participants may need to be followed for longer periods, and 

differences in dosage among program sites may need to be considered in program analyses.

References

Allen, Lili. 2002. Evaluation of the Transition to Comprehensive Youth Services Under the Workforce 

Investment Act. Boston, Mass.: Jobs for the Future.

Bandura, Albert. 1997. Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York, N.Y.: Freeman.

Barnow, Burt S., and Christopher T. King. 2005. The Workforce Investment Act in Eight States. Albany, 

N.Y.: The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.

Bellair, Paul E., Vincent J. Roscigno, and Thomas L. Mcnulty. 2003. “Linking Local Labor Market 

Opportunity to Violence Adolescent Delinquency.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency

40(1):6–33.

Blake, Christie S., and Vanya Hamrin. 2007. “Current Approaches to the Assessment and Management 

of Anger and Aggression in Youth: A Review.” Journal of Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing

20(4):209-221.

Brown, David E., and Mala B. Thakur. 2006. “Workforce Development for Older Youth.” In G.G. Goam 

(ed.). New Directions for Youth Development. Malden, Mass.: Wiley InterScience.

Bushway, Shawn D., and Peter Reuter. 2002. “Labor Markets and Crime Risk Factors.” In D. Farrington, 

D. MacKenzie, L. Sherman, and B. Welsh (eds.). Evidence-Based Crime Prevention. New York, 

N.Y.: Rutledge Press.

Cave, George, Hans Bos, Fred Doolittle, and Cyril Toussaint. 1993. JOBSTART: Final Report on a Program 

for School Dropouts. New York, N.Y.: Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation.

Cave, George, and Janet Quint. 1990. Career Beginnings Impact Evaluation: Findings From a Program for 

Disadvantaged High School Students. New York, N.Y.: Manpower Research Corporation.

Cohen, Mark A., and Alex R. Piquero. 2008. Cost and Benefits of a Targeted Intervention Program for 

Youthful Offenders: The YouthBuild USA Offender Program. Somerville, Mass.: YouthBuild USA. 

Cross, Tim. 2004. “What Works With At-Risk Youths.” Corrections Today 66(2):64–68.

Fisher, Herrick, Paul Montgomery, and Frances E. Gardner. 2008. “Opportunities Provision for 

Preventing Youth Gang Involvement for Children and Young People (7–16).” Cochrane Database 

Systematic Reviews 16(2).

Greene, Jay P., and Greg Forster. 2003. Public High School Graduation and College Readiness Rates in the 

United States. New York, N.Y.: Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan Institute.

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Ihlanfeldt, Keith R. 2006. “Neighborhood Crime and Young Males’ Job Opportunity.” Journal of Law and 

Economics 49(1):249–83.

Jekielek, Susan, Stephanie Cochran, and Elizabeth Hair. 2002. Employment Programs and Youth 

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Larson, Katherine A., and K. David Turner. 2002. Best Practices for Serving Court Involved Youth With 

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MacKenzie, Doris Layton. 2006. What Works in Corrections? Reducing the Criminal Activities of Offenders 

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Partee, Glenda L. 2003. Preparing Youth for Employment: Principles and Characteristics of Five Leading 

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Platt, John S., Richard E. Casey, and Richard T. Faessel. 2006. “The Need for a Paradigmatic Change in 

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Public/Private Ventures. 2002. Serving High-Risk Youth: Lessons From Research and Programming. 

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Research, Inc.

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Wallace Foundation. Washington, D.C.: Child Trends.

Wester, Kelly L., Colleen A. MacDonald, and Todd F. Lewis. 2008. “A Glimpse Into the Lives of Nine 

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