Emmanuel College starts registration for new batch

The economic slowdown in the U.S. mainland has sent government and private sector chief executives scrambling for ways to cut expenses, with the employment of ordinary workers almost always the first target.

Faced with the grim picture of a national economic meltdown caused by the collapse of the housing industry, U.S. employers slashed in February 2008 about 63,000 jobs in every business sector—except in the healthcare industry where the U.S. Department of Labor reported consistent job gains.

Emmanuel College, the first and only private higher educational institution of its kind in the CNMI, is beefing up its efforts to help Northern Marianas residents pursue “recession-proof” careers as it opened registration for the second batch of its Vocational Nursing Program.

Emmanuel College nursing program director Cherry Castro said employment of vocational nurses is expected to grow faster than other occupations through the year 2012 in response to the long-term healthcare needs of America’s “graying” population.

As baby boomers approach the age of retirement, they change the age structure of the U.S. toward a population with more older people and a higher average age. Together with this shift is the increasing demand for healthcare professionals across the nation, Castro said.

Nurses—both registered and vocational—command higher pay and better incentives, and Castro attributes this to the stiffer competition among employers, such as hospitals and long-term care facilities, for nurses.

In California, a licensed vocational nurse normally receives an hourly rate of $24-$28, excluding signing bonuses and a long list of incentives.

The annual vacancy rate for nurses in the U.S. alone is approximately 9 percent, and projections anticipate a shortage of 800,000 nurses by 2050. Other estimates, such as that of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, are more dramatic, perhaps reaching 1 million vacancies to be filled by 2012.

“The Vocational Nursing Program offered by Emmanuel College is one of the surest ways to establish a career that is recession-proof,” said Castro. “With the way things are throughout the world right now, nurses are not likely to be the ones looking for jobs. It’s the job that will look for nurses.”

Emmanuel College is now accepting applications for the second batch of its Vocational Nursing Program—an 11-month study that prepares students to both the theoretical and clinical aspects of the nursing profession.

Classes for the second batch will start in June 2008. For more information, call Emmanuel College at (670) 235-5139/7161. Application forms are also available at its Saipan campus: Ground Floor, Pacific Towers, formerly Koreana Hotel, Chalan Kanoa, Saipan.