The Trump administration wants to defund the Job Corps program within the U.S. Department of Labor, saying it's not cost effective.

A federal judge has blocked that move.

For now, Job Corps offers free education and vocational training for low income youth.

But thousands of students are in limbo concerning their future career plans.

Our Laura Rogers has more from one of the largest Job Corps centers in the country, right here in Kentucky.

As long as you have been focused and attentive to detail, then the sky's the limit.

But that's now a question for Job Corps students like Caitlin Noel.

It's more like the calm before the storm because we're waiting to see what's going to happen.

The Clements Center in Union County had planned to close operations by the end of June, following the Department of Labor's decision on May 29th to shut down the program.

This center here in Morgan Field is the second largest job corps in the United States.

Tessa Goff is director of the Clements Center, where she says 560 students are currently enrolled.

Place it on there.

And so for that funding to be cut, I mean, it's thousands of young people across the United States that would not have the opportunity to continue to get the education that Job Corps provides.

Pretty good job, of course, for those who having passion but no direction.

I feel like job corps for those who have talent but no outlet.

And I'm one of those now.

Lazarbeam Noel studied welding and deckhand and would like to be the captain of the ship one day.

Nothing in life is guaranteed.

The ending of that phrase that nobody really tells you.

Nothing in life is guaranteed.

That means anything is possible.

As long as you keep.

My future goal is I want to be a garnishing chef.

I love seeing customers smile when I serve.

Emma Willoughby is studying culinary arts.

She was adopted as a young girl from China and says she has struggled with mental health issues.

But this program has given her hope.

When I heard about Job Corps, I got a chance to change my life from hopeless into oh, I have a future.

I can learn stuff and to get a job at a stable job.

He's grown a lot.

It's been really good for him to just have that structure in that routine.

Grandson Sam is on the autism spectrum.

He left community college for Job Corps, where he is studying information technology, in which he had hoped to get his certification.

I was really disappointed for him that that wasn't going to happen.

You know, now he's going to be kind of back where he was seven months ago.

And that concerns Dale not just for his own grandson, but for the hundreds of other students facing uncertainty.

I think a lot of them are going to be on the street.

Sam won't be it because he's got a place to call.

He'll he'll come back home with me.

But I think a lot of these kids won't.

I think they ended up there because they had nowhere else to go, and it was an opportunity for them to be able to make something of themselves.

Aside from the student impact, Tessa Goff says the center's closure would deal an economic blow as well.

Morganfield, Kentucky, is a rural area.

The Job Corps Center here is one of the three largest employers in our community.

It's not just employment, but students spend money in the area and perform community service.

Our culinary students, to include Emma, cooked for over 100 volunteers and assisted the FEMA organization with feeding the volunteers that are still helping with the tornado relief here at our community.

So our community counts on us for a lot of things, and we've been there for 60 years.

The center's operated for 60 years.

Whether it will continue for another 60 years remains to be seen.

Real quick for Kentucky Edition, I'm Laura Rogers.

This goes up.

Thank you Laura.

The center also tells us no students have been able to apply to Job Corps since March.

The National Job Corps Association filed a lawsuit on behalf of its operators, and a temporary restraining order was granted yesterday.

A hearing is scheduled for June 17th.

The Earl C Clements Center is resuming normal operations until told otherwise.