‘NMTI’s goal is to become a community college’

Juan Blas Pocaigue, left, and Ross S. Manglona, Certified Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning instructor and Continuing Education & Workforce Development director, respectively, discuss plans after Northern Marianas Trades Institute CEO Agnes McPhetres spoke at the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Saipan at the Hyatt Regency Saipan yesterday. (Erwin Encinares)

Agnes McPhetres, CEO of Northern Marianas Trades Institute, said the ultimate goal of the school is to become a community college to decrease the amount of imported manpower that specializes in various hotel, restaurant, and hospitality operations in the CNMI.

In an exclusive interview with Saipan Tribune yesterday after speaking at the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of Saipan where she’s a member, McPhetres said NMTI becoming a community college has already been discussed by the school and the government, with the latter already designating a site.

“We have been working with the government and they have designated a site for the NMTI in the future, in the southern part of the island close to Saipan Southern High School,” said McPhetres. Additional funding, however, is still necessary. “We would still need funding to do a physical master plan in the area.”

The NMTI also plans to provide topnotch training in hotel and restaurant operations. “What we would also like for the NTMI is to have world-class combination of culinary and hotel hospitality in our school because that is our major industry here so that we don’t have to import people,” said McPhetres. “We would be able to produce U.S. citizens to be part of the economic development in that area.”

McPhetres claims that one of the goals of the NMTI is to be a good training center to play a larger role in the economic advancement of not just the CNMI but of the Western-Pacific as a whole. “Our goal is to really be a good training center in the area of technical vocational programs, not just for the CNMI but for the whole Western-Pacific, so that we can help stimulate the economy of the island as well as that of the region,” said McPhetres.

NMTI plans to add more courses, but the lack of funding is keeping them back. “We have electronic drafting, we have renewable energy, but there are some areas that we would like to explore into, and also get more in-depth in the area of construction trades such as fine carpentry, so students could be making cabinets, etc and become businessmen themselves,” said McPhetres. “In all the specialized areas of construction trades we don’t want to turn out with workers, we want specialists.”

McPhetres also adds that with extra funding, the NMTI will be more efficient. “If you have good instructors, the product would also be good,” concluded McPheters.