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NMTI ‘kickoff’ on Sept. 27
The Northern Marianas Technical Institute will be holding a “kickoff ceremony” on Monday at its Lower Base facility to celebrate the milestones that the trade school has achieved in the last six months.
During the event, there will be a signing of an interagency agreement between NMTI and the Northern Marianas Housing Corp. to make official the trade school’s Workforce Development Training Scholarship Program, a signing of a memorandum of agreement between NMTI and the Department of Corrections, and a ribbon-cutting to mark the opening of NMTI’s financial aid office at its main campus in Lower Base.
According to NMTI interim chief executive officer Jodina Attao Thursday, the Workforce Development Training Scholarship Program was made possible through a Community Development Block Grant under the Disaster Recovery Program. NMTI applied for this grant through the Northern Marianas Housing Corp., and the scholarships will be made available to NMTI’s low to moderate-income students who are studying construction-related trades.
The memorandum of agreement between NMTI and the DOC will make official a pilot program that will be a part of the DOC’s Outreach Program for inmates that will allow them to avail of trades courses at NMTI. Attao said Thursday that she, Corrections Commissioner Wally Villagomez, DOC Sgt. Jeff Quitugua, and DOC legal counsel Leslie Healer worked closely the past five months to set up the pilot program.
Attao added that once the pilot program begins, an NMTI instructor will be reporting to a classroom at DOC twice a week for 20 weeks to teach inmates “CORE: Introduction to Basic Construction Skills.” Upon completion of the prerequisite courses, inmates will be asked to fill out an interest survey to choose a specialized course that they will participate in and complete next.
