AZARIA FAREEN
A Unique partnership has been paved to provide training opportunities to Pacific island tourism and hospitality businesses and workers adversely impacted by the economic disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This core-curriculum is a forward looking initiative in partnership with a number of multilateral organizations- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO), Australia Pacific Training Coalition (APTC), Fiji Hotels and Tourism Association (FHTA) and the Japanese Government.
Speaking at the launch of the “micro-credentials online course”, Minister for Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport (MCTTT) Faiyaz Koya said “online education is likely to become permanent as more services like learning opportunities move online”.
Minister Koya said participants will have the right platform to develop new skills that will be beneficial for their personal gain and the organisation that they work for.
“A recent International Finance Corporation-led Business Survey commissioned by MCTTT revealed that only about 6 percent of tourism businesses and 10 percent of non-tourism businesses are using this time to improve workforce skills,” he said.
“With the right resources and opportunities, businesses are willing to invest in their workers and this is why partnership between industry, Governments and development partners is critical,” he added.
“These micro-credential courses provided by APTC will be a prerequisite for an additional skills course where approximately 1,500 Fijians in the industry, will have an opportunity to learn new skills and enhance productivity.”
The project will initially focus on 40 unemployed staff before expanding to cover an additional 3,000-plus in the country, as well as other Pacific island nations including Kiribati, Nauru, Solomon
Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
The Resident Representative of the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji, Levan Bouadze said “thanks to the generous contribution and support of the Government of Japan, we are pleased to be engaging with key-partners to empower and build the resilience of Pacific island people with meaningful opportunities to overcome the adverse socio-economic impacts of COVID-19”.
The Japanese Ambassador to Fiji, Masahiro Omura said “this programme will help the trainees acquire new skillsets, motivating them to find new jobs, start new ventures in order to support their livelihoods”.
Australian High Commission Regional Counsellor– Political and Economic Development, Ms Renee Deschamps said “COVID-19 will require us to strengthen our partnerships bilaterally and across our Pacific Region, as we attempt to minimise the social and economic costs and work towards recovery”.
Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association chief executive officer Fantasha Lockington said “we are absolutely thrilled that a project like this could be initiated and we believe it will be the first steps into looking at how else we can offer more online training like this.
“Gone are the days where you learn a new skill face to face, it is just the world right now – that you need to start looking at training opportunities that people can learn from wherever they are at their convenience,” she added.