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EPA Brownfields Youth Job Training Program in Middlesex County and Phillipsburg Begins

Release Date: 02/13/2001
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(#01016) NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Forty young men and women from Middlesex County and the town of Phillipsburg begin orientation classes in Newark on Thursday, February 15, in pursuit of their dreams of becoming environmental technicians through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Job Training and Development program. The orientation, being held at the New Jersey Institute for Technology (NJIT), kicks off an intensive training program for the students, who are between the ages of 18 and 25 years old. The program will include 150 hours of hands-on activities related to conducting environmental assessments and cleanups in local communities. EPA supports communities across the country through its Brownfields Economic Redevelopment Initiative - a national effort to renew industrial and commercial properties where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. New Jersey Youth Corps, a program of the New Jersey Department of Human Services’ Office of Education, is running the program, which is supported by a $200,000 grant from EPA. Youth Corps provides basic job skill training and supports career placement of graduates for one year after the training, with the goal of achieving at least an 80% placement rate. "The job training program is a positive step toward providing job skills to young people who may not be in the educational mainstream," said Acting EPA Regional Administrator William J. Muszynski. "This grant program has already provided young people who did not finish high school in Newark and Camden with career training to do environmental assessments and cleanups. We look forward to seeing the same successes in Middlesex County and Phillipsburg." In 1998, EPA awarded New Jersey Youth Corps a grant to run a similar program in Camden and Newark that produced 24 students who received internships, six who pursued continuing education and others who have union apprentices. The program boasted an 85.4% student retention rate for the intensive technical training. The unemployed or underemployed "at risk" young adults selected to participate in this program did not finish high shcool but graduated from the Youth Corps training course and later obtained a General Education Diploma (GED). The New Jersey Department of Human Services administers the Youth Corps, which provides academic instruction, employment readiness, job training, internship stipends and career development programs throughout the state, and is part of the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps. With EPA’s support, the New Jersey Youth Corps also provides a comprehensive foundation for environmental training. The intensive pilot training program includes courses on hazardous waste health and safety training for workers, preliminary assessment and remediation investigation, auditing, site characterization, risk communication and cleanup remedy selection. The hands-on training will have a particular focus on the use of cutting-edge, innovative assessment and cleanup technologies. Following completion of the program, students will be placed in career development internships. The Youth Corps training efforts are being supported by an Advisory Board of New Jersey organizations including the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), the New Brunswick Council for Youth, Middlesex County Community College and the Department of Labor One Stop Career Center in Phillipsburg. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and local unions also have offered significant assistance with the training program. Middlesex County is in central New Jersey and is comprised of 25 municipalities. The Raritan River area was the center of industry and commerce in Middlesex County. Over the past 30 years, the former heavily industrialized region has suffered a significant decline, leaving many industrial facilities abandoned and contaminated. The county currently has a brownfields assessment grant from EPA focused on redevelopment of properties within this strategic area. Phillipsburg is located in Warren County on the Delaware River in northwestern New Jersey. The decline of manufacturing, including steel, has directly contributed to the town’s unemployment rate, which continues to exceed the state-wide average. In Phillipsburg, eight brownfields redevelopment sites have been identified within the 3.2 square mile town boundaries.