Kevin Sealy works for WCT Marine in Astoria, Oregon, also the home of the Tongue Point Job Corps Center. WCT Marine specializes in marine services including new construction, welding, boat repair, building and fabrication. And they’re proud to partner with Tongue Point.

“We bring in students through work-based learning within our company,” says Kevin, “We’ve had really great results with the Job Corps students. We actually have two of them working with us right now.”

One student is welding at the WCT’s partner company called Columbia Steel & Welding.

The other student is painting a vessel.

“As we’ve grown as a company, we’ve needed more and more students to come in for different trades such as seamanship and painting.”

Kevin says the work-based learning program gives students great on-the-job experience and, in the end, it’s a win-win situation.

“Each time we do, they learn something new. We learn a better way to work with Job Corps, a better way to work with students and to help people who are up and coming.”

Kevin understands the value of Job Corps.

“Sometimes they can’t afford formal trade school, and this gives them that option that they can come, they can live here, they can focus completely on their education rather than focusing on, ‘How am I going to feed myself? Where am I going to live?’”