BUCKSPORT – “I came to Job Corps and never left,” said Jim Gagnon, 41, of Brewer. Gagnon is vice president for business development and program design for Training and Development Corp. in Bucksport, which oversees the operation of the two Job Corps Centers in Maine, the Penobscot Job Corps Center in Bangor and the Loring Job Corps Center in Limestone.

“I’m like a TDC poster child. I grew up at TDC,” Gagnon said. He did, literally, given the fact that he was 18 when he first came to Job Corps. He has logged 22 years with Job Corps, either as a student or as an employee.

In 1981, Gagnon was like many new high school graduates. He wanted a summer job. He left his family home in Van Buren and went to visit relatives in Lewiston, thinking he’d have a better chance of finding work there.

“I was reading the classified ads in the newspaper,” Gagnon said, “and I stumbled across an ad for Job Corps.” At that time, Job Corps was a new program in Maine and was located on the Husson College campus in Bangor. Gagnon applied to the program and the rest is Job Corps history.

“Job Corps opened up the world to me,” Gagnon said. “I got to meet people from other cultures. I liked the idea that Job Corps could help people and make an impact in their lives.”

As an employee of Job Corps, Gagnon worked in a variety of jobs in nearly every department in the organization – residential life, administration, property management, finance, at the corporate level, accounting and program development.

“I keep saying,” Gagnon joked, “that someday I’m going to get a ‘real’ job.”

Job Corps is a federally funded national program celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Next year, Penobscot Job Corps will celebrate its 25th anniversary.

Nationally, there are 123 Job Corps sites located in every state in the United States except New Hampshire and Wyoming.

“Maine is fortunate to have two Job Corps sites,” Gagnon said. “It brings young people into Maine and counters the ones that leave every year. Job Corps also keeps youth here. Some students don’t want to return to the inner city and stay here in Maine.”

Sixty-five to 70 percent of Penobscot Job Corps students are from Maine; the remainder is from the rest of New England. Forty percent of students at the Loring Center are from Maine, with the remainder coming from the rest of New England.

What draws students to Job Corps, Gagnon said, are the programs: business, culinary arts, construction and optical dispensing in Bangor; nursing and medical technology, auto mechanics, a commercial driver licensing program, culinary arts and construction in Limestone.

“Job Corps centers are certified by the state as schools,” Gagnon said, “so students can get diplomas from the school they originally came from.” Job Corps curriculum, he said, is aligned to the Maine Learning Results.

“Job Corps is supported by both political parties,” Gagnon said. “It has been scrutinized by the government more than any other program. Congress knows that it’s getting its money’s worth.”

TDC, Gagnon said, has hired many Job Corps graduates, including himself.

“We believe in our graduates and our programs. We hire them,” he said.

Gagnon also is a regional representative for the National Job Corps Alumni Association and a member of its board of directors. In that role, he was one of three people who honored on Sept. 18 boxer George Forman, a Job Corps alumnus, with an award for his commitment to helping youth. The event was held in New York City.

Gagnon serves on the board of directors of the King’s Daughters home in Bangor, and does accounting for the facility.

Job Corps is a residential training and employment program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor to serve at-risk youth between the ages of 16 and 24. To learn about Job Corps, call 990-3000 or 469-6385.