Concerns raised over the outdated curricula in secondary and tertiary institutions and decline of vocational education

Participants attending a high-level stakeholder meeting called by Deputy Prime Minister, Manoa Kamikamica to confront Fiji’s growing skills gap, has raised concerns over the outdated curricula in both secondary and tertiary institutions, the decline of vocational education, and the erosion of Fiji’s once-robust apprenticeship systems.

Private sector representatives said our graduates are often not job-ready.

They say in the telecommunications sector, for instance, students are being trained on 2G technology when the industry has already advanced to 5G.

They say they have to retrain them completely before the workers are employable.

In response, Kamikamica reiterated the Government’s commitment to reinvigorating apprenticeship programmes and reaffirmed the need to restore the original purpose of the 1 percent training levy—to support employer-led workforce development initiatives.

A key outcome of the meeting was the agreement to establish a national task force, co-led by the Fiji Higher Education Commission and the Fiji Human Resources Institute, with technical support from the International Labour Organization.

The task force will develop a forward-looking roadmap to address current and emerging skills needs.

Kamikamica says this marks the beginning of a more open and industry-informed conversation.

He says we must reimagine our education and training systems — not only to close today’s skills gaps, but to prepare Fijians for the jobs of the future.

Kamikamica convened the high-level stakeholder meeting to confront Fiji’s growing skills gap and called for urgent national coordination to deliver data-driven education and labour market reforms.

The dialogue brought together key institutions, including the Fiji Higher Education Commission, the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation, and the International Migration Organization, to align efforts in bridging the growing disconnect between academic qualifications and workforce needs.

Kamikamica says we are investing significantly across key sectors, BPO, ICT, infrastructure, but we are confronted by a fundamental challenge: the lack of skilled human capital to sustain this momentum.

He says we can no longer afford to make policies in the dark and our planning must be grounded in reliable, real-time labour market data.

Fiji Higher Education Commission Executive, Steve Chand highlighted a major gap: the absence of a national database to track and anticipate sector-specific workforce demands.

He says we currently have over 5,000 qualified caregiver graduates with no meaningful employment pathway.

Chand says that’s $15 million spent by families with no return.

He says we must ensure that the qualifications are meaningfully connected to employment outcomes or we risk undermining public trust in our education system.

The meeting proposed leveraging existing institutions such as the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service, the Fiji National Provident Fund, and the Bureau of Statistics to establish a national Labour Market Intelligence System. This system would enable access to up-to-date workforce data for educators, students, policymakers, and employers.