THE Northern Marianas Technical Institute expects to graduate 52 construction students in October this year.
NMTech Marketing Coordinator Ben Babauta Jr. said this year’s enrollees for the construction certification courses started attending their classes on Tuesday. They’re learning carpentry, welding, electrical and masonry.
Babauta said these construction programs will lead to an industry certification with the National Center for Construction Education and Research or NCCER, a not-for-profit education foundation.
Babauta and NMTech Curriculum Director Margie Ray Santos were the Rotary Club of Saipan’s guest speakers during the club’s weekly luncheon meeting on Tuesday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan’s Giovanni’s Restaurant.
They briefed the Rotarians about NMTech’s certification programs which also include automotive and culinary arts.
In an interview, Babauta said the 52 construction certification program students include a woman who enrolled in welding class.
The classes in the construction program are at different levels, he said. Some students, for example, are at Level 1 of carpentry; others are at Levels 1 and 2 of welding class or at Levels 1, 2, and 4 of the electrical classes.
Some Level 1 and 2 classes will be completed in June and July, but all of the 52 construction students should complete their respective classes in October this year, Babauta said.
In a PowerPoint presentation, he said that in 2022, there were 8,093 job openings in construction and extraction.
He said some of NMTech’s construction students last year have landed jobs.
Babauta said they are hoping that their students would continue to take higher level classes and go into apprenticeships so that they can learn more while earning money.
For her part, Santos said she is tasked to provide academic advising, “which is really just letting the students know the course and how long they are going to take it.”
She said NMTech also wants to make sure that its instructors give the students the encouragement to continue taking their classes.
Northern Marianas Technical Institute Marketing Coordinator Ben Babauta Jr., fourth right, and Curriculum Director Margie Ray Santos, left foreground, pose for a photo with Saipan Rotary Club of Saipan President Wendell Posadas, third right, and other Rotarians after a presentation at the Hyatt Regency Saipan’s Giovanni’s Restaurant on Tuesday.
