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PSS gets $310K grant for Connecting Youth to Jobs
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Interior Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas Esther Kia’aina has awarded $310,000 from the Office of Insular Affairs’ Technical Assistance Program to a public-private project that connects high school-aged students to private-sector careers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The joint project—co-sponsored by the Public School System and the Chambers of Commerce of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota—will help expand the citizen workforce through co-operative education and on-the-job training that will lead to employment in CNMI’s growing tourism economy.
“I applaud Education Commissioner Rita Sablan and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Public School System for working with the Chamber of Commerce and public high schools to provide job training opportunities for CNMI youth,” said Kia’aina. “As the CNMI considers long-term workforce needs through increased immigration to meet the demand of its growing tourism industry, it is important to ensure that they do everything possible to develop and implement a local workforce development strategy.”
The “Connecting Youth to Jobs” program begins with a rigorous college and career-focused curriculum along with co-operative education, job shadowing, and on-the-job training where students earn as they learn and graduate from high school career-ready.
Recent data from the CNMI show that more than 50 percent of jobs in the private sector are held by nonresident workers. The goal of this program is to increase the U.S. citizen workforce by linking youth to jobs in the CNMI as part of preparing them to be college- and career-ready. Projections show that across a 10-year period of youth training, 3,000 youth will be employed in the private sector, which would be more than 10 percent of the current labor force. (OIA)
