Because of its success in developing advanced health care programs in cooperation with Cary Medical Center in Caribou, the Loring Job Corps Center may be in line for more money and a new designation as a health care magnet center, allowing it to expand its medical programs.

The U.S. Department of Labor believes that the number of medical assistants in the United States will grow by 59 percent in the next 10 years.

Other critical areas of growth will be for physicians' assistants (49 percent) and home health aides (48 percent).

According to the Labor Department, health care jobs represent six of the top 10 fastest growing occupations in the country.

Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have requested appropriations and language in a bill to designate the Loring Job Corps Center as a health care magnet center.

"It would mean more funding, and more employees for the Loring Job Corps Center," Dr. Reginald Reed, the center's business and community liaison, said Tuesday. Young people at the center and others could come to Loring for advanced training in the medical field.

"This is the first year of a 10-year plan to get designations for centers around the country," he said. "Centers could become magnet centers for jobs in the medical field, the military and homeland security."

The programs would provide more on-the-job training. The Loring program has worked closely with the Cary Medical Center to train its students.

Reed said the programs developed with the Cary center go a long way in helping to get the designation at Loring. He said the program could be enlarged so that other Aroostook County hospitals could become involved.

In their request, Snowe and Collins have praised the efforts of the Loring Job Corps Center as one of the "premier centers in New England." The center, according to them, is consistently ranked in the top third of Job Corps Centers in the country.

Reed did not know the timetable for the program, or the amounts of money involved.

"The quicker the better," he said. "The process is being developed under the U.S. Department of Labor.

"The expansion would be good for the present programs, and it may include vocation we don't offer now," he said. "It could involve programs with many areas of health care needs."

The national Job Corps Centers program is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The program has trained more than 2 million young people for entry-level positions.

Loring programs in the medical field now include such occupations as insurance claims processing, medical records, medical transcription and certified nursing assistants.