Placement of over 70 University Students Identified for two months apprenticeship.

PORT VILA, 20^th September 2023.

The Vanuatu Institute of Public Administration and Management under the Office of the Public Service Commission has secured job placements for over 70 university students currently in their final years of study in Fiji.

VIPAM’s Principal Development and Scholarship officer, Mr Pierrick Lesines stated that this resulted from a Vanuatu Students Career Talk Program that took place in Fiji from 7^th to 10^th of September 2023.

“A total of more than 70 university students from universities in Fiji located both in Suva and Nadi were secured placements in different government departments for apprenticeship during month of December 2023 to January 2024,” he said.

“These students are studying in different fields ranging from engineering, medical field, commerce and many more.”  

Mr Lesines reiterated that these two months apprenticeship will enable these students to create networks and skills related to their field of study and career development. The office of the VIPAM will conduct an induction for the final year students upon their arrival at the end of the academic year as well as an awareness program for all students so that they are able to compare between theory and practice in preparation towards their internship after graduation.

The main objective for the Career talk day for Vanuatu students in Fiji was to present the new Student Attache to the students by the Scholarship office and for the Office of VIPAM/PSC and Scholarship office to jointly meet the Vanuatu students in Fiji to discuss on their careers upon their return from scholarship.

Mr. Lesines attended the Career Day program on behalf of the Secretary of PSC and presented the roles of PSC as the employer of all government services.

“I promoted PSC as a choice of employment to our students and explained our cadetship and internship program and the requirements associated with this program,” he stated.

The career talk usually takes place during the PSC week, however since potential candidates are almost finishing their degree, it was considered that this program will bridge the PSC process to potential graduates.

The presentation of the Career talk day focused on job seeking, personal experiences, entrepreneurship, skills, VIPAM/PSC roles and functions and the Human Resource Development Plan of the Government by the TSCU.

Mr Lesines further emphasized to the students the skills demand and skills supply needed in the workforce and encouraged students that there are other employment avenues in Vanuatu apart from the public sector.

“I briefly stated the targets set on out in the NSDP (The People’s Plan 2030) and the National Human Resource Development Plan (NHRDP) linking it to the work of skills and training authority such as the VQA and TVET – we have been working together to identify a baseline of skills required and address existing needs,” he explained.

“All these skills are required to meet the government priorities, so this is where skills supply is needed. VIPAM has conducted an exercise with four government ministries to identify what are the priority occupation and what priority skills or specialization is needed and from there we are able to emphasize skill supply to address government priorities and we will continue this activity until we capture all ministries.”

The office of VIPAM, TVET and the Vanuatu High Commission have reiterated that this will be an annual event to target Vanuatu students starting abroad in Fiji and New Caledonia where most ni-Vanuatu students go on scholarship to make sure that their fields of study and skills acquired is what is needed in country to achieve the government priorities and provide better service delivery to the people of Vanuatu.