Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Job Corps has joined the list of agencies currently facing a serious threat of being shut down by the US Department of Labor (DOL), according to Vaituutuu Areta, who works at MTC Maui Job Corps. American Samoa has a formal Memorandum Of Understanding with Hawaii Job Corps, where students from American Samoa can enroll in the program at the Hawaii Job Corps campuses Waimanalo and Maui.

The first local student participated in the program via the MOU in late 2023. At the time, then Gov Lemanu P. S. Mauga said, “This is a great opportunity for our youth to find their career paths and acquire the skills they need for their future…”

The transfer of recruitment responsibilities was formalized in August with the signing of the official MOU at the Hawaii Job Corps Campus in Waimanalo, Hawaii.

The Job Corps program was initially introduced in American Samoa around 1997, spearheaded by then House Speaker Nua Saoluaga, who appointed the late Afimutasi Gus Hannemann to oversee federal government affairs for the House leadership and manage the implementation of the Job Corps program in the territory.

Over the years, numerous students from American Samoa have successfully enrolled in and completed the Job Corps Program in Hawai'i, while others have pursued the program at centers on the mainland.

Areta, as part of the Maui Job Corps center, points out that in March of this year, the DOL “terminated the contract with the company that conducted background checks for new enrollees, resulting in a standstill in the enrollment process. As a result, around 12,000 students are waiting to be accepted into the program.”

She further notes that “no decision has been made yet on the future of Job Corps.”

Areta continued that they “are doing everything we can to keep Job Corps strong, including working closely with the National Job Corps Association and other operators to conduct an aggressive outreach campaign, which launched this morning.

“Centers are reaching out to their communities, employer partners, local elected officials, students, parents, employees, and other supporters, urging them to contact their members of Congress.

“The goal is simple: flood Congress with positive, personal stories about Job Corps and encourage them to keep funding the program and resume enrollment immediately.

“MTC leaders are also meeting with members of Congress this week and sharing ideas with the DOL on how to make Job Corps more efficient and effective.

“This is a critical time for Job Corps. Thank you for all that you do to help this valuable program navigate this challenging time.

“We our trying to save our job corps for our young adults to achieve to their success but we cannot do it by ourselves we need our community and our congress lady to fight with our people to save these good programs for our young adults please.”

There has been no formal announcement from the Governor’s Office as to status of the Job Corps program in American Samoa, and it’s unknown at this time who is responsible for its local enrollment process.