Gerald R Ford Job Corps Center - Grand Rapids, Michigan

George England

I really wish I had taken the time to do more research than the few months of talking to staff. This campus is horrible and sets your children up for failure. Staff keeps having change so when you think your in good contact with the process of how your child is progressing a new staff member has taken lead. They side with the children on decisions that are not beneficial as far as weekend passes with other students to give freedom I was told. Yet they want to leave with a crowd with bad influence. I will be honest and take responsibility for making a bad decision to send my child here.

Brad H

I attended Grand Rapids JobCorps back in late 80’s;had a blast partied on weekends,got wrote up a lot,yet obtained my G.E.D. and completed welding.Food was great and staff was ok,me and 7 homeboys from Detroit all wound up in the same room,it was an 8 bed dorm.We all made it thru Job Corps.

JayRain

NONSTOP HARASSMENT / LIES

Hello everyone reading, my name is Jason K and I went to this center in 2023 and some of you might know me from when I went here back then but let's get straight to the point. After coming to this center I was placed in a room with 4 people per room and I couldn't sleep because my roommates kept arguing with their girlfriends on the phone every night at 12am-2am and one of my roommates ended up SAing me then got terminated. As for the actual quality there's no fridges in the rooms, no microwave, no way to make food. There was only 1 "community" fridge and 1 "community microwave" but only the staff could use them most of the time and the microwave was only brought out at specific times. There was severe favoritism with the RA's and staff, some students were allowed to use the microwave and fridge while a lot were not. There is a lot of trades here that will NOT get you a job and are utterly useless skills. For example I was persuaded into going to the "Office Administration" trade here and was told I could be making 6 figures from it and that I would get a job easily. The truth is after you graduate from that trade you will be working retail or at McDonald's making minimum wage. The trade only teaches you basic Microsoft excel, powerpoint, and word and they give you a useless certificate which no employers value or even remotely care about. After graduating here I was left unemployed, licenseless, and broke. I had to get my license at home and it was much faster because their drivers ed car was broke down and they made you wait 4-5 months just to even take your test while at home I took my test in a month and passed on my first attempt. I had to live with my mom because I couldn't get a job with my useless certificate despite applying to hundreds of jobs with it. After I graduated from here dozens of staff from here kept on spamming my messages and kept calling me even after I told them repeatedly to leave me alone and to not talk to me. They then kept showing up to both of my parents houses and wouldn't take no as an answer. Recently they even began threatening me and making up lies about me for not responding to them. They said that I "breached their contract" and that they will have to take "drastic" measures if I do not reply. They then went on to say that I was trying to do "suicide by cop" and made up some lie about how I'm "unstable" or something due to me not replying. I would avoid this place at all costs due to the fact that I gained absolutely nothing except trouble, threats, and harassment from the staff here. I will be involving my lawyer on what to do next.

Jordan Harper

low on staff, mold in the showers? rats falling out the roof, the roof was falling bathroom in main building don’t get cleaned…when you get termed when your a minor they don’t let your parents know they just throw you on a bus when you’re sick they give you a pill and send you back to class it’s just really disgusting and unput together

P

DO NOT RECOMMEND mold in the showers dorms cold with no heat hot water does not work. The website is nothing like what this place says it is. Staff is very unprofessional. Many problems in this facility. Many teachers and staff quit. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to this place ever.

amiyah johnson

i wouldn’t recommend to anyone. staff SUPER unprofessional, there’s no communication, no organization, not much structure, people aren’t getting treated fairly, boys dorms are disgusting, the things they tell you before u get there aren’t true, they take money out of their students $40 checks that are only given every 2 weeks, it’s difficult to get off center and get the things you need, girls dorm has a ant problem, and a lot more. the program is all over the place and is not what it seemed to be. the first week you’re there they try to pamper you by taking you out to eat & things like that but after about week 3 or 4 you see how the program really runs. i’ve seen people leave same day. horrible experiences here

Rowena Ellison

I went here back in 1987-88. I hated it at first but as I got to know people it was more fun. From the pics I have looked at, it looks like the dorms have been downsized. There were usually 7 or 8 girls to a room and there were no showers or toilets in the rooms, you had to go down the hall for that (same with the guys). I personally didn't have any problems with fighting but there definitely were some that happened (mostly over boys). They used to take us to shopping malls, laser light shows, the library which was downtown at the time, and I don't know if they still take students to concerts but they did back in my day. Everyone pretty much partied on the weekends and a lot of us would get wrote up for coming in after curfew lol (myself included). I'm not going to lie it was rough getting used to at first, but I stuck it out and got my GED and Certification of Completion as an Office Receptionist (which I still have to this day). I stayed for a year and wished now I would have stayed longer and furthered my education in either the program I was in or in Auto Mechanics. In short, I had a blast and I miss the fun I had and the friends I made. If given the chance I would do it all over again and would have stayed for the full two years.

Echo Archer

Mold in male dorm
Doesn't respect religion
Disrespect from staff
Staff and students act unprotected
Heavy favoritism