THERE are more students on the waiting list than are currently enrolled, according to Ross Manglona, director for continuing education and workforce development, Northern Marianas Technical Institute.
Many courses are not being offered as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have a large pool of interested registrants just waiting,” he said.
Agnes M. McPhetres
NMTI chief executive officer Agnes McPhetres said high schools are ready to register their students for the program the institute offers.
Through this program, students will receive both their national trades certification and high school diploma upon graduation, she said.
Manglona added that the program is open to public and private high schools. Students who have dropped out of high school can also complete their studies at NMTI, he said.
The ultimate goal, he said, is for the students to already be placed into internships and prepared for job offers upon graduation.
“There is this common misconception that only [Public School System] high school students can enroll in that program,” Manglona said.
Parents with children who are interested in learning a trade are encouraged to enroll the students at NMTI whether their children attend public or private school, or have dropped out of high school.
NMTI, he said, offers night classes and provides transportation to students.
This arrangement allows for traditional school students to take trades courses at the institute after their regular school schedule.
“Just because your [school] counselor did not match you with NMTI does not mean that you cannot take NMTI courses if you can handle the workload,” Manglona said.
“We already have three such students enrolled,” he added.
McPhetres said prior to the pandemic, the institute had an arrangement with the Public School System and Mount Carmel School for their students interested in trades.
However, the program has been put on hold “until things become more normal,” she said.
NMTI Director of Instruction Dante Yumul said under the arrangement between NMTI and PSS, an NMTI instructor will teach a trades course to public high school students as an elective.
Once the course is completed, the students will earn both high school and NMTI credits, as well as certification and a diploma upon graduation from high school.
These courses are designed mainly toward kinesthetic learners, or those who prefer hands-on learning as opposed to just auditory and visual, Yumul said.
Manglona said there are high school students who do not do well in traditional high school courses because they are kinesthetic learners.
“These are kids that are hands-on — kids who like to play baseball, kids who want to learn how to take a car apart and put it back together,” he said.
McPhetres said, “One of the greatest tragedies that I have seen in our public schools is that we have pushed that issue of training our students for skills. We don’t really look at it as a must, but this is the foundation of our economic development.”
She added, “If we prepare our people for office [work] as well as building the economy, then the CNMI will be more self-sufficient and not depend so much on bringing people from the outside, because we will already have our skilled laborers over here.”
She said right now, if the CNMI loses all of its foreign skilled laborers, and should there be a greater rate of outmigration among the local people, then the local economy would be in a worse condition than it already is.
“Education is not only for the desk and the offices,” McPhetres said, adding that lack of funding continues to prevent NMTI from operating at full capacity.
Founded as a non-profit institution in 2008 by the late local businessman Anthony Pellegrino, the trade school became a government entity with the enactment of Public Law 20-92 in February 2019.
