Would you like a career that is virtually recession-proof, a paycheck that you can count on week after week, with benefits that give you and your family good healthcare coverage?
Consider a career with the federal corrections system, and start the pathway to that career with an associate degree in Criminal Justice from White Mountains Community College in Berlin. Our program here at the college will give you the solid foundation you will need to enter the field of corrections, with the added bonus of an educational foundation more than adequate enough to pursue other careers in the criminal justice system, from law enforcement to probation officer. You can gain experience in the field through an internship, and gain knowledge from our faculty members who will pass on the knowledge that they have gained working as professionals in the fields of law, law enforcement, corrections, and other related fields.
In April, when the snow goes and the ground thaws, the construction work on the federal medium security prison in Berlin starts in earnest. The $200-million plus project will need about 350 Federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) employees when it is fully operational, with an estimated average compensation of over $50,000 a year for those federal workers. Though some of these well-paid positions will, out of necessity, go to more seasoned employees of BOP, there is nothing to stop the younger residents of Coös County from filling the slots open for new employees. Preparing now for those positions makes good economic sense for young people, and in the years to come those seasoned employees will age out of the system, leaving even more slots open for new hires from the greater Coös County region.
This spring our classes in our Criminal Justice program include Criminal Law, Juvenile Justice Administration, Drug Abuse and the Law, Justice and the Community, and Public Administration. Those classes are meeting now, but there will be more this coming fall. If you are interested in pursing employment in the corrections field, or any other field, please get in touch with us.
Our involvement with preparing tomorrow's workers today for the federal prison does not start there, though. We have a hand in giving area residents the skills they need to be productive workers during the construction phase of the prison, also. We here at White Mountains Community College, the North Country's educational institute of the Community College System of New Hampshire, began collaborating with state, local, and area organizations several years ago in order to prepare the region's citizens for the employment opportunities that the prison will provide. Some of those collaborations have already born fruit. We have already worked with the Berlin office of NH Employment Security, the Family Resource Center in Gorham, and plumbing subcontractor J.B. Bell Corporation to offer plumbing apprenticeships for ten local residents. The four-year program requires 144 hours of classroom instruction a year, and we are working with Bell and the Employment Security folks to get that curriculum up and running, ready for those who will become, upon completion of the apprenticeship and in-class time, journeyman plumbers.
We offer nineteen associate degree programs here at the college, along with certificate and training programs. From nursing to water quality technicians, we offer educational training in fields that will continue to grow, despite whatever else the national economy is doing.
If you have questions, thoughts, or comments about this article, please e-mail keneguess@ccsnh.edu.
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