{"id":285840,"date":"2018-10-03T06:06:05","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T20:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=285840"},"modified":"2018-10-03T06:06:05","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T20:06:05","slug":"todays-young-are-tomorrows-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/todays-young-are-tomorrows-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s young are tomorrow\u2019s workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: The following is part of a series that examines what is being done today to prepare for the end of the foreign workers program in 2029.<\/em><\/p>\n

First part of a series<\/strong><\/p>\n

The CNMI Department of Labor is eyeing students as young as 10 years old to have the skills that will make them ready and prepared for the work environment of the CNMI 10 years down the road.<\/p>\n

Labor Secretary Vicky Benavente said that students today need to be ready to meet specific employer needs in the future.<\/p>\n

She said her department is working closely with the Public School System and private schools to achieve that goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs early as now, we are looking at planting the seeds among fifth grade students certain work ethics and standards such as attendance, communication skills, and confidence. \u2026We believe that those are core values that help young children understand how important these values are as the future of our workforce,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Benavente believes that 10 years old is a good age to inculcate the ideas of what it takes to be a great employee or a great business owner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we are working with the businesses and the private sector to put together business development training plans, which makes for a good recipe for a prosperous economy,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

With the U.S. Workforce Act in effect and assuring local businesses a supply of foreign workers until 2020, Benavente believes that the CNMI will always need to supplement its workforce. <\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up here that\u2019s why I understand why we are dependent on foreign workers. Diversity is good as we are on an island in the Pacific,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people that come here, that lay the work here, come from the Philippines, China, Korea, Japan, and other parts of Asia because we are so close to these places. If we can make each one of them a productive member of our community then it\u2019s all good\u2026 But we will still do everything we can to help U.S. citizens and place them in jobs,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The past weeks have been busy for Benavente\u2019s office, as they have been meeting with several companies and businesses that are struggling with their CW-1 processing. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been putting together all the concerns and issues, then relaying that to the administration, who then relay it to Washington and so forth. So what we are doing is to give recommendations\u2026so we can assist businesses,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know every business in the CNMI wants to hire the most qualified, best person for the job\u2026What we are trying to do is really to get together and see where these vacancies are, educate the children and make them have the appetite to join our workforce in the future,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

She said her department is holding job fairs, assisting employers from the private sector with training, and working with agencies such as Northern Marianas Trades Institute, Latte Training, Northern Marianas College, and PSS. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: The following is part of a series that examines what is being done…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[56,26,262,41],"class_list":["post-285840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-business-3","tag-cnmi","tag-northern-marianas-college","tag-public-school-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285840","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\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}