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Curriculum for CUC training program to be finalized
A curriculum for a training program for current as well as future employees of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is in the works with the help of the Northern Marianas Technical Institute.
NMTI Construction Trades director Rip Stephanson presented an initial version of the curriculum during a CUC board meeting on Monday.
The core curriculum, which includes introductory craft skills, will require 113 contact hours. This would include basic safety, construction math, hand tools, power tools, construction drawings, basic rigging, as well as communication and employability skills.
Courses for a power plant welder and power generation maintenance mechanic were also presented.
Scholarships, incentives, as well as possible job offers for those who complete the program were also discussed.
Aside from educating their current staff, the course could also help CUC prepare for the end of the foreign worker program in 2019.
“It is wise for us at CUC to work on that transition,” vice chair Eric San Nicolas said.
The training will run for two to three years, which is about enough time for CUC to have potential employees to replace those it would lose if the CW program is not extended.
The board said it wants a final curriculum as well as a cost estimate at a meeting that they will hold later this month.
“They gave me some feedback and now that we’ve met, I have to fine-tune the program,” Stephanson said.
