Mr Singh used hoteliers, as an example of an arm of the private sector, that recruited “untrained” workers who were trained in-house, in a self-empowering act to address labour challenges.
No matter how attractive we try to make it, Fiji is no match for the wages and salaries offered in Australia and New Zealand.
The response from the Employment and Productivity ministry yesterday was a reality check in the face of growing concerns over the labour mobility scheme.
If we pay a good tradesperson around $12-$15 an hour, they would get more than twice that amount in the two bigger countries, a pull factor admitted by Minister Agni Deo Singh.
His suggestion to mitigate through improved local training programmes funded by Australia and New Zealand could raise eyebrows. But it must be pursued.
In the meantime, someone’s going to pay for Fiji’s “finished products” leaving for greener pastures.
The private sector, as Mr Singh pointed out, could do so much more too, like take advantage of the incentivised cadetship programme was an example.
Mr Singh used hoteliers, as an example of an arm of the private sector, that recruited “untrained” workers who were trained in-house, in a self-empowering act to address labour challenges.
Large corporates including Energy Fiji Limited and Fiji Sugar Corporation would do well through such incentivised measures.
According to Mr Singh, employers could be encouraged to train trades people – an effectively successful method used in the 80s and 90s, which suddenly stopped.
The only “other way to go”, as Mr Singh put it, would be through a similar arrangement to the new scholarship scheme, where workers were bonded, before the option to migrate was allowed.
It’s good news too that scholarships under the new scheme are not distributed in haywire fashion like the student loans scheme that left many unemployables.
Poor policy planning – a human resource development programme mess – under the student loans scheme, led to an oversupply of unemployable graduates who were jobless for years – while those in other areas were in short supply.
Mr Singh’s assurance of a carefully planned allocation of scholarships in areas it most needed is welcomed.
We can expect a more structured approach to bring about adequate numbers of graduates in the right areas.
In the meantime, Fiji continued all it could to improve human resource development, with a work-and-stay scheme.
Australia provides students 40-hours of work per week; where individuals could study and work for up to six years, and stay back after securing a job.
A similar system exists here, as Mr Singh has alluded to. Let’s use it.
Feedback: frederica.elbourne@fijisun.com.fj
