WIA program lures more participants this year

The Workforce Investment Agency says this year’s participation in the summer program exceeded last year’s for all three islands combined by more than 60 percent.

Executive director Edith Deleon Guerrero said the agency expects the numbers to continue rising and that “the trend in school enrollments tell of the increasing numbers in the CNMI’s youth population, thus the greater need and urgency to focus on youth programs that are proven successes throughout the country.”

Deleon Guerrero said the increased participation in the WIA summer program happened because she has taken the initiative to “allow and embrace applicants as young as 14 years old to participate in the summer employment program.” She said this is allowable under the WIA Act of 1998 for the youth funding program, of which the Summer Youth Employment and Training Program is considered one of the required 10 youth elements.

Student participants began work early this week and will earn $4.05 an hour for a period of six weeks.

According to Deleon Guerrero, “The overall benefiting factor that the summer program provides besides earning is the opportunity for the qualifying CNMI youth to learn the necessary skills to make them become competitive in the employment market in all areas: local, regional and global markets.”

She said the idea is to prepare them early on and not wait until they are ready to exit high school.

“I truly believe that the sooner we invest in their education and training, the better prepared they will be when they enter the real business environment, thus my utmost support and dedication to communicate across all levels of the CNMI’s public and private partners to follow in the same passion in building a talented and competitive CNMI workforce,” said Deleon Guerrero.

Every year WIA provides workshops to summer participants in areas such as work ethics, telephone etiquette, personal grooming, customer service and basic financial literacy.

“I feel that by offering these workshops prior to placing them on the job, they will become better prepared when they report to work the first day. I believe in exposing the youth participants to the real business environment and expectations so that it does not come as a surprise to them when they report to work,” Deleon Guerrero said.