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NMTI offers short-term course for maintenance
The Northern Marianas Trade Institute will be offering a new program that is short-term and will give the student the skills needed to get a job quickly and easily.
According to NMTI Construction Trades director Rip Stephanson, the course will provide the skills necessary for the graduate to be a maintenance person or a handyman.
“The maintenance course gives the graduate enough skills to perform common basic repairs and maintenance needed in most institutional and hotel settings,” Stephanson said.
The course, which can take about three months, involves 132 hours, and will have three phases: 1. basic safety, basic construction math, introduction to hand tools and power tools; 2. introduction to electrical circuits, electrical theory, basic electrical drawings, residential electrical service, and electrical test equipment and; 3. plumbing tools, plumbing drawings, plastic pipe and fittings, and introduction to drain and waste.
The course work will be accompanied by hands-on experience in these different areas.
According to Stephanson, the curriculum and testing is done under a non-profit organization called National Center for Construction Education and Research, which is approved by the U.S. Department of Labor and provides internationally recognized credentials.
Stephanson said that hotels and businesses are calling up weekly looking for people to perform maintenance.
“In terms of construction workers, right now there is a shortage. A fully trained construction worker cannot be created in less than one year. However, a helper with training in safety and basic skills can be created in three to four months,” he said.
According to Stephanson, they will also have sessions sponsored by the Public School System for three middle schools in the coming month.
“The point is to expose kids at a younger age to things like baking, wood-working, plan reading, smart phone apps, etc. There will be over 100 kids total involved in this,” Stephanson said.
