Fijians who have lost their jobs since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic will now be able to reskill themselves.

This can be done through short courses at the Fiji National University following a grant allocation.

During the 2021/2022 budget, the Fiji National University was allocated one million dollars grant for reskilling and upskilling short courses for which they will work together with the National Employment Center.

FNU’s Acting Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor TVET, Doctor Rohit Kishore says these courses will prepare Fijians for new jobs and successful careers in the same or different industries.

He adds the short courses are targeted in areas where the majority of people have lost their jobs, such as small and medium enterprises, travel and tourism industry.

“New demand for skills coming up. We will be opening tourism very soon, and there are a lot of protocols, a lot of different types of soft skill type required of the employment because the industry has changed, worldwide the industry has changed so we are retraining and up-skilling people to make them read for the job.
Dr Kishore says these are eight-week courses, and the first lot of 25 courses under the grant will start on January 17th next year.”

He adds they will also provide 5000 new funded places for Technical and Vocational Education and Training courses through the Tertiary Education Loans Scheme.

Under TVET, FNU will provide 108 programs aimed particularly at Year 12 and 13 students and those who want to upgrade themselves.