{"id":186989,"date":"2014-12-10T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=186989"},"modified":"2014-12-10T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T18:00:00","slug":"nmti-hosts-talk-skilled-craft-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/nmti-hosts-talk-skilled-craft-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"NMTI hosts talk on skilled craft careers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Herbert Johnston from the Guam Contractors Association Trades Academy spoke to Marianas High School students yesterday morning about the opportunities in store for them as potential skilled craft professionals.<\/p>\n

Johnston is responsible for certifying instructors at the Northern Marianas Technical Institute. He has certified a dozen instructors for the institute, who in turn certify other local instructors, he said in an interview yesterday.<\/p>\n

He called this \u201clocal people, teaching local people.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Herbert<\/a>
Herbert Johnston, founder of the Guam Contractors Association Trades Academy, speaks to Marianas High School students yesterday. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEven throughout the Chamorro culture, we\u2019ve always had pride in our workmanship. What we want to do is try to encourage that and try to focus it into construction because there is a dire need not only on Guam and Saipan but throughout the world for skilled construction workers and we would like to improve on that,\u201d he told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

NMTI students and even instructors have matriculated over to Guam to work, he said, with some even going to the U.S. mainland to get good paying jobs.<\/p>\n

He started GCA Trades Academy in Guam, and was previously asked to start a school on Saipan, he said, but to this he gave a \u201cyes\u201d and a \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said I got too many things to do but I can show you how to it, and you show them how to do it,\u201d he said. He called this \u201ckeeping money local, but standards\u2026national.\u201d<\/p>\n

How has the school grown since he started assisting in 2008? He said it has been \u201cdifficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s got its challenges. The situation in Saipan is a whole lot different than Guam but we\u2019ve got a lot of things that are similar. We both need skilled workers but Guam is a little bit bigger, Guam has a little bit more money floating around. [It has] a lot more private sector going on, but the opportunities are still here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

GCA Trade Academy is accredited under the National Center for Construction Education and Research, and as partners with NMTI, they offer the same national, standardized curriculum, according to Johnston.<\/p>\n

He told students yesterday that there are about 600,000 jobs open in the construction field, and if there are no workers, projects can\u2019t be built, he said. This makes professionals \u201cextremely valuable,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Two million skilled craft professionals will be needed by 2017, he said. He described NMTI\u2019s and GCA Trades\u2019 curriculum as competency-based. \u201cOnce you take a test and a pass it, it\u2019s over. It depends on you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that classes are modular, and usually three weeks long. He told the students that a hundred years ago thatched roofs were built together by the men and women on Saipan and Guam working together.<\/p>\n

Because of this, construction, he said, is \u201cleaving your mark\u201d and \u201creliving a tradition.\u201d He encouraged students to explore the career, and that all GCA Trades Academy and NMTI ask is a student\u2019s genuine interest and a willingness to learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Herbert Johnston from the Guam Contractors Association Trades Academy spoke to Marianas High School students…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":186999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[51,479,38,492],"class_list":["post-186989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-guam","tag-nmti","tag-saipan-tribune","tag-test"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}