NMU Custodial awarded Top Individual Vocational Training Internship site

MARQUETTE — As the end Career and Technical Education Month nears, the Marquette-Alger Regional Educational Service Agency handed out another Individual Vocational Training Internship Site award.

The Top Individual Vocational Training Internship Site in Marquette and Alger counties went to Northern Michigan University Custodial, which provides realistic job development for Transition students and provides them to develop workplace skills. The internship with NMU Custodial also allows students with special needs to have access to university life they may otherwise be excluded from.

All of the Transition students who have completed the training at this site over the last three years are currently paid employees elsewhere. The site supervisor, Paul “P. J.” Pruett said the award is so special to him because of the meaning behind it.

“You’re doing something good for the community. Working with special education kids is a big part of my life and my family life, too. I ended up doing the Transition program at Northern and then me and my wife decided to do the Special Olympics,” said Pruett.

In addition to his duties as a site supervisor, Pruett also coaches a Special Olympics track and field team. He said some of his students are also his athletes and that they stay in touch with him, even after their training is complete.

MARESA representatives said he often goes out of his way to help these students. This year, Pruett volunteered to take two students instead of the typical one student.