Fiji, like any other country in the world, is faced with challenges associated with finding meaningful employment for its people.
However, the Fiji National University vice chancellor Dr Ganesh Chand said they were geared towards combating this problem because education at FNU was aimed at providing students appropriate skills to work for others.
Dr Chand said courses and programs at FNU also ensured that people could be self-employed and hence, contribute towards the economy.
“The challenge to find employment and not only employment but meaningful employment remains. Education at FNU is aimed at a number of things. It is aimed at giving people who study through FNU appropriate skills to work for others, therefore be employed. Fortunately, FNU has had a good record in that regard,” Dr Chand said.
“Our students who graduate have no difficulty in finding jobs around the industries in the country. They are well regarded by the industry but that is not the only reason why FNU is providing tertiary education.
“FNU’s core area of involvement also is to ensure that our graduates can be self employed. We give the students that set of skills which they can use to set up their own operations, their own small businesses, their own enterprises and therefore become self-employed and in that way contribute to the economy.”
Dr Chand also believes that literacy among the population is also an important component of a developed country.
“Even if there is a problem of transitory or temporary unemployment, the fact is that it is always better to live in a society of educated people than to have a society where a large number of people are not educated so employment or lack of jobs is not the only reason why we are in the business of tertiary education,” he added.
“I am proud to say that a lot of FNU graduates and in fact graduates from FIT, FSM and from all of our institutions are now in the private sector.
“They have set up their own operations. They are running small businesses; small companies and many of them are now proud owners of very big enterprises in Fiji.
“That is a very positive thing about the quality and the type of education that we provide at FNU.”
FNU now has centres in Rakiraki, Nadi, Ba, Lautoka, Labasa, Suva, Nasinu and another centre will be opened in Sigatoka on August 4.
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