CUC starts developing local workforce with NMTI classes

Commonwealth Utilities Corp. acting director Gary Camacho signs a memorandum of agreement between CUC and the Northern Marianas Trade Institute with Construction Trades director Rip Stephanson, right, and CUC human resources manager Andrew Orsini, left, as they begin training 15 employees from the power plant to enhance their skills in power generation. (Frauleine S. Villanueva)

Training classes for the first batch of Commonwealth Utilities Corp. power generation employees will begin today at the Northern Marianas Trade Institute.

According to NMTI Construction Trades director Rip Stephanson, the curriculum, which will have three modules, will last for about four and a half months.

The first module will last for two months and will deal with basic lessons such as safety, mathematics, construction math, construction drawings, materials handling, hand tools and power tools, and basic communication.

The second module will deal with lessons as required by the Department of Homeland Security.

“The reason we have to have that is because it’s a requirement of the Patriot Act, that every critical infrastructure have people trained on site on security,” Stephanson said.

Another two months of the training will deal with upper-level skills that specifically deal with power plant operations. This will include both the electrical and mechanical aspects of the power plant.

“We have some very qualified that will be doing the instructing. Pretty much all the instructors are locals so they know the local culture is, how to explain things,” Stephanson said.

From Monday to Friday, there will be three-hour classes in the morning, and in the afternoon, the participants are required to report to the power plant.

For the classes, Stephanson said NMTI is charging at a cost of $70 per credit, which is equivalent to 15 hours

According to CUC human resources manager Andrew Orsini, 15 individuals will take part on the first batch with five representatives from Rota, one from Tinian, and nine from Saipan.

Most of these have been working for one or two years at CUC.

Aside from gaining knowledge and skills, the participants will be accredited by NMTI under the National Center for Construction Education and Research, and accreditations as recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S Army Corps of Engineer.

They will also benefit in their current standing in their work.

“For completing these modules, our employees are going to be, so-called, awarded in terms of their salaries and their position title in CUC because that is progressive improvement as far as their skill-level,” Orsini said.

Developing local workforce

Despite initially saying that foreign workers can apply to take part in the program, no foreign workers will be part of the training as it is geared toward building CUC’s labor force in preparation for the 2019 phasing out of Commonwealth-only workers, and NMTI requires that their students be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

“We wish we could [include foreign workers] but we wanted to be focused to accommodate the locals,” Orsini said, “We want to be more ready than sorry. We don’t know what will happen after 2019. We need to start getting ready now.”

In January, CUC’s power generation staff was challenged as 21 foreign workers weren’t able to work due to delays in their work permits. These are much-needed highly skilled individuals in various areas such as operations, technical, electrical, mechanical, and auxiliary.

Orsini said that those who will be undergoing the curriculum will have the skills that these foreign workers have.

CUC acting director Gary Camacho said that there is a need to develop their workforce as power demands is increase.

“We need to ensure that the development program even at the most basic levels have to be in place to prepare a labor force that’s going to be moving forward with the technologies provided today at the work place,” Camacho said.

“We intend to develop our local workforce and provide opportunities to the people of these islands, CUC has a number of different areas, services that it provides to the communities of the CNMI and understands the need to have a developed and well prepared staff,” he added, “CUC is proud to be in partnership with NMTI.”