Luring CNMI youths to return

As part of efforts to lure back to the CNMI the many youth who are studying off-island, the CNMI Scholarship Program is setting aside funds in a program whose main goal would be to provide these off-island students incentives to come back.

According to program administrator Rose Pangelinan, these include fellowship and internship programs, which hopes to attract students abroad to return home.

“We understand that some of the students abroad fall into the degree program and we plan to bring them home for internship and fellowship programs. We would be here to help our students to get back into our workforce,” she added, speaking to business leaders at the Saipan Chamber of Commerce general meeting last week.

Pangelinan cited examples where students who studied abroad came back to the CNMI and tried to apply for jobs here but were turned down.

“There are issues with our students from abroad who come back home equipped with a bachelor’s degree and get turned down in the job because they don’t have work experience,” she said. “By having these internships and fellowship programs, we would help them [and] give them a chance to work here. This opportunity will also give private companies a chance to work with them, guide them, and groom them into employees that you can hire.”

Programs initiated by the CNMI Scholarship Program are fueled by local funds and money from the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker program. Since transferring the administration of CW fees to the CNMI Scholarship Office this fiscal year, the CNMI Scholarship Office continues its efforts to ensure that the funds are distributed in line with the mandates of U.S. Public Law 110-229.

Pangelinan said that the CNMI Scholarship board of directors created MRWORKS, or Marianas Rural Workforce Opportunities by Rehabilitation thru Knowledge and Skills. Part of this program holds the components of the CW funds.

In the CNMI fiscal year 2018 budget, a grand total of $1.95 million from existing CW fees was appropriated by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres to be administered by the CNMI Scholarship Office and distributed to eligible educational and vocational entities.

“The CW funds are given out as grants to the three educational institutions on the island: Northern Marianas College, Northern Marianas Trade Institute, and Latte Training Academy,” she said, “Our mission is really to…train eligible U.S. residents in the Commonwealth and the criteria for the grant process includes that the institutions must be in the Commonwealth, the training and education must take place in the Commonwealth and the funds to be used for education are limited to U.S.-eligible residents,” she added.

Pangelinan said that the scholarship office assessed what was needed in the Commonwealth based on the CW counts of jobs that need transition.

The first tier consists of construction workers and building services, food service for handlers and servers and medicine, and health occupations, including nursing.

The second tier includes administrative, managerial, business managers, computer-related occupations, agricultural occupations, fishing industry, and entertainment and recreation occupations.

The third tier is “writing education, architectural, engineering, and surveying occupations,” she added.

Pangelinan said the Scholarship Program is working hard on how to best utilize the $1.9-million budget allotted to them to give to the needs of NMC, NMTI, and LTA.

“We have to work within our means and consider also the kind of trainings that they were able to provide this year. We will continue to make every effort to identify funds that could be used toward their additional needs,” she added.