BANGOR – Training and Development Corp. has announced the approval of the Loring Job Corps Center and the Penobscot Job Corps Center as nontraditional limited purpose schools.

The Maine centers received state approval Sept. 26. This approval allows Maine residents to receive credit toward their high school diplomas for work completed at Job Corps.

The Penobscot Job Corps in Bangor opened its doors in 1979, and the Loring Job Corps Center in Limestone in 1997. The centers serve more than 900 students annually, 40 percent of them Maine residents. Nationally, Job Corps serves more than 70,000 new students annually, through 199 centers.

According to Edwin Kastuck, program approval officer for the state,

“The certification approval of the Job Corps centers presents new opportunities for meeting the learning needs of Maine students.

“All Maine schools now have an alternative to offer their students, ensuring that more and more Maine students will reach higher levels of academic achievement,” he said.

“Making this option known to Maine families will be important.”

Since 1964, the Job Corps program has been a central part of federal efforts to provide employment assistance to eligible youth between the ages of 16 and 24.

Job Corps is an intensive, comprehensive program whose major service components include academic education, vocational training, residential living, health care, health education, career development and job placement assistance.

Funded by the Department of Labor, Job Corps is the most successful, longest-running youth development program in the country.

According to a recent study, Job Corps produces students with high graduation rates and higher employment earnings.

In 2000, the U.S. departments of Education and Labor entered into a memorandum of understanding designed to bring Job Corps programs into the educational continuum throughout the states. The new Job Corps designation by the state of Maine is the first of its type in the nation.

At 4 p.m. Jan. 3, at the Penobscot Job Corps Center in Bangor, officials of the Maine Department of Education will present the school certification to both Maine Job Corps centers.

Organizers of the event said they were expecting a number of national and state officials to be present at the ceremony.

Several students and staffers will be present, including Charles Tetro, president and CEO of TDC.