WIA gears up for ’09 summer youth employment program

The CNMI State Workforce Investment Agency has received supplemental funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for an expanded youth summer program capping the age for summer qualifiers funded under ARRA at 24 years old.

This means the qualifying age under ARRA 2009 is from 14 to 24 years old, while under WIA’s ordinary formula grant, it will be for those 14 to 21 years old.

In preparation and prior to the qualified participants’ job placements in the private and public sectors, WIA requires all summer qualifiers to attend various work readiness workshops in customer service, telephone etiquette, work ethics, personal grooming and basic financial literacy. These workshops are designed to prepare the youth participants of employer expectations prior to their entrance into the real working business environment, in addition to preparing them for their future in becoming skilled and competitive workers in the local and global employment markets. Employers are encouraged and appreciated for their effort in enhancing the summer participants’ work readiness skills during their employment period within their companies.

The workshop will be conducted June 23-26, 2009 at the American Memorial Park Visitors Center from 8am to 12am and 1pm-5pm. OSHA workshops and the opportunity for participants and employers to meet are also the activities included during the week of June 23-26, 2009. Rota and Tinian are scheduled for June 29-30 respectively.

Summer applications will be made available today, March 13, 2009, at Marianas High School, Kagman and Saipan Southern high schools and Hopwood and Chacha Oceanview for junior high. Applications for Rota and Tinian will be made available at the OPM Offices within their respective municipalities.

WIA will begin accepting summer applications on Saipan beginning March 16, 2009, 7:30am to 4:30pm. The Saipan case manager will be on Rota at the WIA Rota Office on March 20 and April 10 to receive summer applications and to conduct assessments. Tinian is scheduled for March 27 and April 23.

In the interest of the participants’ safety, OSHA compliance, and in accordance with the USDOL’s YouthRules! Initiative, which promotes positive and safe work experience for young workers, WIA as the administering agency for the USDOL ETA Youth funds reserves the right not to fill some requested slot if the slots are considered non-conducive to the YouthRule! Initiative.

Based on the funding level for this year’s summer program and placement slots, WIA’s goal is to embrace a total of 813 qualified summer participants including Rota and Tinian and wishes to express its utmost appreciations to all the participating employers for their willingness and support in becoming WIA’s partner again for this year’s summer program.

Applicants are encouraged to ensure completeness of the application and submission of all required documents. Incomplete applications will not be certified by WIA. Official deadline for all summer applications submission to WIA is April 30, 2009, 4:30pm. Applicants will be qualified based on prior index ranking, barriers and income, not by the application’s receipt or first-come, first-serve basis. The participants will officially report to work in two different schedules for a period of four weeks beginning July 6-31, 2009 for the first qualifiers and Aug. 3-28, 2009, for the second qualifiers.

For inquiries, contact WIA at 664-1708/ 1757 or fax at 664-1710 and e-mail at gov.wia@pticom.com. [B][I](PR)[/I][/B]