As Fiji continues to have a skills gap crisis and the country continues to supply workers to Australia under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility or PALM Scheme, the CEO of the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation, Edward Bernard says the Fijian government needs to urgently look at the scheme as the recent national skills gap report is telling us that the PALM Scheme is a documented driver of Fiji's skills loss.
While speaking on fijivillage Straight Talk With Vijay Narayan, Bernard says the maximum benefit of the seasonal worker scheme should benefit the labour supplying country which is not the case in this situation.
Bernard says we may have $1.4 billion in remittances but he asks what it is doing in the skills in the labour market.
He says the remittances can eventually reduce based on the situation in that country.
Bernard stresses that we need to prioritise our local labour market instead of the overseas market.
He adds that the Immigration Minister has also complained to him that requests are coming from businesses in Fiji now for people from overseas to come and stack up supermarket shelves.
He says this is a sad situation as many young people do not want to work based on them receiving money from relatives abroad, no real desire to work, and those registered under the National Employment Centre Program not wanting to work as they are awaiting a placement under the overseas schemes.
According to the skills gap report, there are 95 distinct skills that are missing and at the top of that list is chefs, IT technicians, accountants, electricians and machine operators.
Bernard says they are struggling to get the right people with the skill sets and the behaviour.
