A new generation of local workers • JTPA trainees vow to take over private sector jobs

Jacob Villagomez wakes up early and heads to work at 7 o’clock in the morning every day. He works as a delivery man and warehouse keeper at Triple J Wholesale Department.

“I feel like I’m a real employee. I sweat a lot, but I like being busy,” says Villagomez, a recent graduate of Marianas High School (MHS) who is taking a summer job under the Job Training Partnership Act or JTPA.

This is the first year for Villagomez to go on a job training in a private company. During his previous years’ JTPA training, he was sent to different government agencies such as the Department of Commerce, Department of Public Works, and the Legislature, where he said he “only learned how to look at the watch and wait for lunch time and the end of office hours.”

“There’s nothing at all to do in the government. The hardest part of my job training in the government was to bear with boredom,” Villagomez says.

About 300 CNMI students have joined the JTPA program this summer. While learning, these students are making $3.50 per hour, which is 45 cents higher than the minimum wage rate for regular workers.

At least 120 trainees have been assigned to the private sector, which according to JTPA executive director Felix Nogis, provides better and more effective training.

The real world

More than the money that he takes home on pay days, the experience of “seeing the real world and being part of it” is what Zenn Tomokane considers a reward from his summer job.

Tomokane, son of Marianas Visitors Bureau’s former Managing Director Anicia Tomokane, works as “parts man” at Triple J Motors Department. He works behind the counter selling automotive parts.

It’s no joke, he says.

“Sometimes, I have to entertain three customers at the same time. Then the phone would ring. It’s a lot of pressure, and this job is teaching me how to handle pressure,” says the 16-year-old Tomokane, an incoming senior at MHS.

“This is the type of training that we need. We don’t need to learn how to look at our watches and wait for lunch time,” says Tomokane.

Tomokane’s job has given him the opportunity to experience what it’s like to be on the other side of the fence.

“I used to be a demanding customer. But now that I know that people behind the counter deal with such a pressure, I’ve learned to become a good customer myself,” says Tomokane.

In the “real world,” 17-year-old Avaline Abon discovered that being a manager is not like being a king or queen.

Abon says, “I thought it was easy to be a manager and that making a big salary is fun.”

She was wrong.

“I’ve seen my boss getting stressed out. I see the kind of work that he has to deal with; the papers of the employees that he has to bring to the labor department; putting them together, and all that,” she adds.

Abon is a trainee of Noel Taisacan, manager of Triple J’s Human Resource Department

It’s about time

“We appreciate JTPA’s move to allow the private sector to participate in the training of local youth. We’re very enthusiastic,” says Taisacan.

He says Triple J has requested for 10 trainees but was given only six.

“Our company is willing to train more locals. We want to get involved in molding our young people into becoming productive citizens. In the private sector, they can learn about work ethics,” Taisacan says.

In the past years, JTPA trainees were assigned only at the government, which eventually hired them by virtue of political and family connections.

“This is not a practical thing to do now since our government has started reducing its workforce. Students might as well gear up for other types of work,” Taisacan says, adding that the JTPA program should gear toward changing the local people’s attitude toward manual work.

“This program should teach young people that holding a shovel or changing tires, or being a delivery person is not embarrassing. These are types of job that one should be proud of,” Taisacan says.

“Big money cannot be found only in the government. There’s also money in the private sector if they will set their mind to it,” he adds.

Takeover

The CNMI has been under federal attack because of its heavy reliance on nonresident workers. Of the 30,000 positions in the private sector, 90 percent is occupied by workers from the Philippines, China, Bangladesh and other Asian countries.

Most of the local citizens, lured by higher paying jobs, are holding government positions, which costs 75 percent of the government’s $216.75 million current budget.

The Saipan Chamber of Commerce has initiated job-related training program for local citizens and has urged the government to grant tax credits for companies taking such initiative.

“Allowing the private sector to be part of JTPA is a good move. With these kids that we have in our company now, I’m ninety-nine percent positive that the CNMI will soon have enough local workers to take the jobs in the private sector,” says Taisacan. “We may continue to need nonresident workers, but in the future it would be on a lower level.”

When asked if they are ready to replace alien workers, Villagomez, Tomokane and Abon replied in unison: “Yes.”

But they said a change of bad attitude toward work should “start from the top.”

Tomokane suggests: “Our government leaders should attend JTPA.”