At least 31 private business entities met with hundreds of high school students who participated in the event spearheaded by the Public School System.
Coordinator Tyce Mister said 75 percent of the participating student are likely to get on-the-job training.
With the expected restrictions on the hiring of guest workers under the federalization law, businesses now prefer hiring more local residents.
Denice Montenegro, training manager of the Hyatt Regency Saipan, said two students who participated in the Career Fair five years ago are now the hotel’s supervisors.
Another student was hired through the cooperative program and still works for the Hyatt, she said.
This time, Montenegro said majority of the students were interested in guest relations job while others wanted to work in the kitchen.
Although they can’t accommodate all the 30 students who signed up for the Hyatt, Montenegro said some of them will be hired.
Montenegro said due to the uncertainties about the work force, job fairs for locals should be done more frequently in cooperation with the Department of Labor.
The parents, too, she said should support the schools’ cooperative classes.
There are parents, she added, who don’t trust the program because their children are not paid.
Students who work for a private business under the cooperative program get class credit.
If the company sees that they students have the skills, they can be hired as soon as they graduate from high school.
Dung Tenorio, parts manager of Joeten Motors, said they can bring in at least two high school students who signed up yesterday.
He said the students they get through the program are more likely to be hired since they have already trained them.
Dice Hix, disc jockey of Power 99, said their night shift DJ, Spade, started out as student trainee through the cooperative program last year.
Hix said this year she met one student who has “potentials.”
