NMC looks to incentivize CNMI apprenticeship program

A successful apprenticeship program in the CNMI would the need the essential mentors or journeymen to train students in the program, according to Northern Marianas College dean of administration and resource development David Attao. While he said this “education component” might be lacking in the CNMI, incentives for businesses to partake in these programs may free up money for them to hire these much-needed trainers.

He said incentives for businesses are what NMC, Public School System, the Northern Marianas Technical Institute, and other CNMI departments are including in the language of a grant proposal for $2 million to $5 million from the U.S. Department of Labor for apprenticeship programs nationwide.

Labor announced $100 million for approximately 25 grants nationwide last December for expanding registered apprenticeships. In 2006, NMC was authorized to establish such a program with Public Law 15-5 but, according to Attao, funds were never appropriated for the program since that time.

“When it comes to the real need and what is expected of an apprenticeship program, the CNMI doesn’t have the educational components to meet that,” he said.

He said it can take from $4,400 to $6,000 to get a student properly trained.

He said that in talks with U.S. Labor officials, he has been told that an apprenticeship program would be difficult without the mentors or journeymen to help get the program started.

Apprenticeship would require formal education training plus on-the-job training, to be led by such a mentor with experience and certification to do so. But, according to Attao, “NMTI’s not ready, NMC is not ready” for that.

“Everywhere else it’s a challenge to get that journeyperson, because it’s a burden on the business to have that kind of trainer to monitor people everyday.”

He said in the U.S. mainland, there are incentives provided to businesses to join these programs but “that’s not what we have here.”

“This new grant that we are trying to write has language that would allow that to happen. Incentives will allow businesses to free up that money and bring in trainers for those areas.”

He said NMC has pushed for tax incentives for businesses to be identified as the source of funding for their own apprenticeship program in years past, to no success.

“If [the tax breaks] went through, it would support the [NMC apprenticeship] program. It would have offset the [unfunded mandate of Public Law] 15-5 and would have helped us help the community.”

It would be difficult for NMC to pull from its own pocket $5 million to create such a program, as in the first place they ask for $7 million from the government, he said.

“There’s a misnomer out there that we are not doing apprenticeship. We are trying but based on what we’ve encountered, people want full salaries, full employee pay with the funds we use.”

In the midst of a lack of a program, he said NMC still has programs with “apprenticeship components” like their Community Development Institute that has programs for workforce development and certificate training, for example.

To further their efforts in workforce development, he said, the college works closely with the CNMI Department of Labor in identifying workforce needs and how the college can address this.

An NMC working document based on updated statistics from Labor shows for example the number of non-U.S. workers in the positions of accountant or engineer in the CNMI.

According to Attao, the college uses the document to see what they offer to meet these needs, and if they can’t—as they are only a community college—they point to partners such as state universities or programs that could assist in these areas.