Paving provides 'sweet smell of success' for Job Corps students

Standing at the curb, you can feel heat radiating from new blacktop.  For at least one Tongue Point Job Corps Center student, in Astoria, Oregon, the heat – and the pungent odor – are clear signs of success.   

This summer, operators of a western Oregon paving company told 16 Tongue Point students, their crew members earn about $50 per hour.  Students were given a field trip tour of the company’s batch mixing plant.  Later, they watched the paving crew put the final touches on a street project.

The students watched the massive, 35,000 pound paver lumber up the steep incline, laying down a thick coat of 295 degree asphalt.  After the machine leaves a flat sheet of piping-hot material on the surface, a roller presses down and the ground shudders as the road is firmly packed.

One Tongue Point student, impressed with the operation, thought he might look into paving as a vocation.   “I've always liked working with my hands. The hard labor appeals to me," he said.

Students weren't the only ones along on the field trip. Tongue Point Job Corps Center's work-based learning specialist also came along to see if the paving operation might be a fit for the center's hands-on training program.

Each student usually completes about 350 hours of work-based learning before they graduate.  There are about 75 regional employers on Tongue Point's roster at any one time.  The students don't get paid for their work; but the real job experience helps them apply what they've learned in class.  

(Posted 9/20/09)

More News