The Northern Marianas Trades Institute is teaming up with the CNMI Public School System in order to offer various vocational skills to high school students.<\/p>\n
The idea is to develop a curriculum that would offer vocational trade from the ninth all the way to the 12th grade, according to NMTI chief executive officer Agnes McPhetres in last Friday night\u2019s Denim & Diamonds Gala at Fiesta Resort & Spa\u2019s Hibiscus Hall.<\/p>\n
It is not yet known if the trades program would start this coming school year, but the overall goal is to curb the dropout rate among high school students, McPhetres said, \u201cso that they will have options while they are going to school. By the time they graduate from high school, they will have their diplomas plus a certificate in some trades area.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said NMTI\u2019s partnership with PSS would give students the chance to either work part-time or join the CNMI labor force full-time once they graduate from high school. \u201cAnd when they reach their senior year they would be able to be employed because they will have the skills by then,\u201d McPhetres said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have this memorandum of agreement with the [CNMI Board of Education] that the students could benefit from it, so that we don\u2019t have to duplicate the programs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
McPhetres added that NMTI\u2019s programs are not limited to high school graduates or the youth as anyone can learn trades skills. \u201cWe are open to any age.\u201d<\/p>\n
Congratulations<\/strong><\/p>\n Triple J board chair Robert H. Jones congratulated McPhetres and the entire NMTI board for the trades programs that they offer, most especially in the culinary arts that help ease workforce issues in the CNMI.<\/p>\n \u201cI congratulate [McPhetres] and her group for the progress they\u2019ve made. I\u2019ve seen the ups and downs of our economy, and the challenges of securing a workforce to do the job. We\u2019re not going to get the problem solved unless we train local people to do the job long-term,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a pleasure to work alongside Agnes and NMTI in the culinary arts program to reinvest in our employees. It\u2019s been my pleasure to make what little contribution we have on behalf of my family and employees.\u201d<\/p>\n He thanked Triple J\u2019s 918-strong labor force in Micronesia\u2014the CNMI, Guam, the Marshall Islands, and Palau\u2014for their success and the reason behind the Robert H. Jones Award for Student Achievement in Culinary Arts.<\/p>\n \u201cI have the best group of employees who back me up 100 percent and it\u2019s because of them, my team to whom I attribute this award, that I\u2019m standing here tonight. I\u2019m also encouraged by the amount of support that I\u2019ve seen here tonight from all the people. All the tables are full,\u201d added Jones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Northern Marianas Trades Institute is teaming up with the CNMI Public School System in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,1080,479,67],"class_list":["post-278952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-fiesta-resort-spa","tag-nmti","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278952","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}