Changes to TELS and TVET rebranded to Skills Qualifications

The government will double the number of scholarships to 1,200 and the eligibility criteria will be published by TSLS in the Fijian Scholarship Scheme regulations.

Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has announced that the number of awards under the National Toppers Local Scheme will increase from 547 to 770, with 40 awards for MBBS, 5 for Bachelor of Dental Surgery and 40 for nursing.

The scholarship cut-off mark for nursing will be 300 for Year 13.

The government will allocate 165 scholarships for teacher training in Maths and Physics, Industrial Arts, Primary Education and Computer Science.

Scholarships for students with special needs will remain at 20, based on past uptake records.

The government will also reinstate the National Toppers Overseas Scheme which was suspended due to border closures. The scheme was previously allocated 20 awards; however, for the next financial year Government will double it to 40 awards, of which 30 will be for degree programmes, 5 for in-service public sector workers and 5 for TVET qualifications.

Sayed-Khaiyum says they will for the first time allocate 10 Ph.D. and 20 Masters-by-research scholarships for full-time studies.

The 3 Masters awards will be ring-fenced for Monash University-Fiji National University Pacific Island Countries Climate Change Research Centre.

The areas will be limited to Medicine, Health, Science, Engineering, Climate Change/Environmental Science, Marine Science, Forestry, Public Policy, Public Financing, Economic Modelling and ICT.

Sayed-Khaiyum also says the government will introduce 200 awards under a rebranded “Skills Qualification” scholarship scheme (previously TVET) at Fiji National University.

The cut-off mark for this scheme will be 250 for Year 13 and 270 for Year 12.

The number of In-Service awards will increase from 120 to 140, of which 100 will be for public sector organisations and 40 for private sector and state owned enterprises.

In addition, 200 grants will be awarded for micro qualifications to develop construction skills, inclusive of a $100 monthly industrial attachment allowance.

The cut-off mark for TELS for Higher Education/Level 7 programmes will remain at 250.

For commerce, the cut-off mark will be 280, except for accounting, economics and management or administration, where the cut-off mark will be 300.

For Skills Qualifications at FNU, the eligibility will be a pass in Year 12, Certificate I or II from Fiji Higher Education Commission recognized institutions or offer letter obtained from FNU.

The government will allocate 2,800 TELS awards for level 7 programmes.

Within this, nursing will have 200 awards, and the allocations for teacher training, ICT, environmental and marine science disciplines will increase. Skills Qualifications from levels 3, 4 and 5 at FNU will have 4,600 allocations.

In total, the government will allocate 8,000 student loans and the criteria will be published by TSLS.

A total of 9,200 scholarships and loans will be awarded in the 2022/2023 financial year with a total allocation of $162.6 million.