NMTI hosts talk on skilled craft careers

Herbert Johnston from the Guam Contractors Association Trades Academy spoke to Marianas High School students yesterday morning about the opportunities in store for them as potential skilled craft professionals.

Johnston is responsible for certifying instructors at the Northern Marianas Technical Institute. He has certified a dozen instructors for the institute, who in turn certify other local instructors, he said in an interview yesterday.

He called this “local people, teaching local people.”

Herbert Johnston, founder of the Guam Contractors Association Trades Academy, speaks to Marianas High School students yesterday. (Dennis B. Chan)

“Even throughout the Chamorro culture, we’ve always had pride in our workmanship. What we want to do is try to encourage that and try to focus it into construction because there is a dire need not only on Guam and Saipan but throughout the world for skilled construction workers and we would like to improve on that,” he told Saipan Tribune.

NMTI students and even instructors have matriculated over to Guam to work, he said, with some even going to the U.S. mainland to get good paying jobs.

He started GCA Trades Academy in Guam, and was previously asked to start a school on Saipan, he said, but to this he gave a “yes” and a “no.”

“I said I got too many things to do but I can show you how to it, and you show them how to do it,” he said. He called this “keeping money local, but standards…national.”

How has the school grown since he started assisting in 2008? He said it has been “difficult.”

“It’s got its challenges. The situation in Saipan is a whole lot different than Guam but we’ve got a lot of things that are similar. We both need skilled workers but Guam is a little bit bigger, Guam has a little bit more money floating around. [It has] a lot more private sector going on, but the opportunities are still here,” he said.

GCA Trade Academy is accredited under the National Center for Construction Education and Research, and as partners with NMTI, they offer the same national, standardized curriculum, according to Johnston.

He told students yesterday that there are about 600,000 jobs open in the construction field, and if there are no workers, projects can’t be built, he said. This makes professionals “extremely valuable,” he added.

Two million skilled craft professionals will be needed by 2017, he said. He described NMTI’s and GCA Trades’ curriculum as competency-based. “Once you take a test and a pass it, it’s over. It depends on you,” he said.

He added that classes are modular, and usually three weeks long. He told the students that a hundred years ago thatched roofs were built together by the men and women on Saipan and Guam working together.

Because of this, construction, he said, is “leaving your mark” and “reliving a tradition.” He encouraged students to explore the career, and that all GCA Trades Academy and NMTI ask is a student’s genuine interest and a willingness to learn.