About 60 percent of the 230 jobs expected at the Nevada Southern Detention Center will be correctional officers, Corrections Corporation of America executives said Thursday.

Those officers will be more skilled than may be the common stereotype of the poorly educated male who turns keys, according to a presentation to a workforce development taskforce assembled at Great Basin College.

"Our goal is to find people who want a career, not a job," said Doug Swope, CCA human relations director.

CCA Chief Human Resources Officer Bill Rusak said, "This is one industry where you can set your sights on the top job, and you can get there."

Swope told work force members, including counselors from Nevada JobConnect, many applicants will meet the minimal requirements for a job at the facility: age requirements, valid driver's license, no felonies, a U.S. citizen and a high school diploma.

"You could take those people that meet minimal requirements and start the pre-screening requirements," Swope told Nevada JobConnect counselors.

But Rusak said even after applicants are hired and go through the company's four-week training course, when starting correctional officers begin work at the detention center, "It comes at you like drinking out of a fire hose."

Rusak said first-time employees need to adjust to the feeling of working behind the gates and dealing with the "cat and mouse" games of the inmates.

"Just because they look good, smell good, does not mean they're going to make it," Rusak said. "A military veteran would be an ideal candidate, someone who's independent, tough, disciplined, plays by the rules, a self-starter."

People with experience in law enforcement could be good applicants, he added, to deal with the "regimented, quasi-military type environment."

CCA gets audited at a third of its facilities each year for compliance with affirmative action quotas, Rusak said. CCA needs to compile a community profile of Pahrump demographics, examining matters like gender and race, he said.

"There is an ongoing requirement for debt management these people are going to have to maintain," Rusak said. People who can't manage their personal debt while working at the facility are subject to termination, he said.

Applicants with a criminal justice or correctional justice degree could have a good chance at getting a job, Rusak said. CCA will offer ongoing training to employees by the American Correction Association, he said.

Applications will be online. Applicants can apply through the Corrections Corporation of America-Nevada Web site.

Diane Lake, interim manager of the Pahrump JobConnect office, said her office is already receiving lots of inquiries. But she conceded people could apply online for jobs at the detention center independently of her office.

Bill Verbeck, director of Great Basin College Pahrump campus, said right now the college system could offer a three-credit course called Introduction to Corrections. There could be a three-credit course in personal finance to help applicants get that critical good credit rating necessary for a job with the U.S. Marshal's Service and three credits in Criminal Process and Community Relations, which reviews the criminal justice process from arrest to incarceration and rehabilitation.

"We did throw in personal finance because we have people living on plastic," Verbeck told CCA officials. "These people are educated and highly skilled."

Those courses could begin in September, but Verbeck said they don't need to be tied into the traditional college semester schedule. Applicants could be trained in those courses and ready to work by March 2010, he said, CCA hopes to be ready to begin accepting inmates by the fall of 2010.

John Rice, Great Basin College director of institutional advancement, said the college can arrange other specific training courses if necessary. Rusak suggested a corporate finance course for management positions.

"We have 180 clients who are potential employees for you," said Claudia Palacios, a resource development specialist for Nevada JobConnect.

Laurayne Murray, site supervisor for Nevada Partners, said JobConnect would pre-screen job applicants, checking their education and conducting background checks.

But Rusak said CCA already has a national vendor who will do background checks.

"We're going to do our own vetting," he said.

JobConnect counselor Brian Nelson said it's arranging for Consumer Credit Counseling to come out from Las Vegas weekly. But Rusak said, "We're doing credit counseling at a lot of our federal locations."

Verbeck told CCA it could use a room at the new Great Basin College addition for training employees by interactive video. Swope said CCA commonly uses that technology.

Swope said the warden and assistant warden and some chiefs of security will probably transfer to Pahrump from other CCA locations.

Correctional officers undergo assessments, Swope said.

"The reason we have an assessment for correctional officers is that's the highest percentage of turnover we have in our organization," he said.