SHEFA seeking to collaborate with agencies on ‘priority fields’

The Saipan Higher Education Financial Assistance is planning to meet with different government entities and possibly business organizations to identify the needs for its incentive grant for scholars under its “priority field of study” program.

As it is right now, some board members believe that SHEFA regulations governing the priority field of study is too broad, with too many fields of study.

This grant is an incentive program that seeks to encourage Saipan students to pursue college degrees that are highly needed on the island such as education and the health care field.

However, with growing businesses and the transitioning of contract workers before 2019, majority of the job market will lean toward the hotel side of developments.

SHEFA administrator Merissa S. Rasa said that its policy and procedure committee has not met yet to amend and update its priority field list. She was reminded by SHEFA board to contact and invite a few key partners upon their next meeting.

These include Department of Labor, Office of Personnel Management, Northern Marianas College, and possibly Society for Human Resource Management-NMI Chapter.

SHEFA’s policy and procedure committee is seeking their input on the current types of field of study needed in today’s workforce.

Rasa said that one of SHEFA’s goals is to update SHEFA’s priority fields list so it corresponds with the Commonwealth workforce needs.

SHEFA’s latest snapshots on data for student majors under its programs for Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 showed that majority of the students pursued social sciences and fine arts.

Social sciences and fine arts include arts, communications, political science, psychology, social work, and journalism. For fall 2013 and spring 2014 semesters, 25 percent went to social sciences and fine arts, 24 percent for education, 16 percent for medical and allied fields, 12 percent for business administration/management, 9 percent for criminal justice/law enforcement, 4 percent for computer science, 2 percent for accounting and economics, and 2 percent for tourism and hospitality.

With the new developers such as Best Sunshine International, Ltd., Alter City Group, Honest Profit, and other hotels reinvesting back for improvements; students taking up fields in hospitality, economics, tourism, and accounting are at its lowest and caters to these specific developers.