THE Northern Marianas Technical Institute will hold a kick-off ceremony at 10 a.m. today, Sept. 27, to celebrate the milestones it has achieved in the last six months.
The first of these milestones is the ceremonial signing of the Workforce Development Training Scholarship Program Intergovernmental Agency Agreement with the Northern Marianas Housing Corporation Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery Program.
The agreement is specific to construction trades, such as carpentry, welding, electrical, electronics system, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, masonry, construction technology as well as heavy equipment operations.
The second of these milestones is the newly established NMTECH financial aid office, for which a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held.
NMTECH interim chief executive officer Jodina Attao on Thursday extended special thanks to NMHC CDBG-DR program manager Kimo Rosario for his support and guidance as NMTECH established processes and applications to enable students to avail themselves of this scholarship opportunity.
The third milestone is the signing of a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Corrections, a pilot project with the department’s outreach program, which will allow inmates to enroll in trades courses.
Attao said she has been working with Corrections Commissioner Wally Villagomez, Sgt. Jeff Quitugua, and legal counsel Leslie Healer for the past five months to set up the program.
“Currently, we have a classroom setup with a trade school instructor conducting twice a week classes for inmates who want to complete an introduction to basic construction skills certification program,” Attao said.
She added that NMTECH has also formed a partnership with the CNMI Youth Congress.
