Specialised training
p. 45 · Read in the full issue
In My Office,
we have no doubt that there is a real demand for techni cal training in the Forum island countries. We’ve just reviewed the re sults of the first six months of a pilot program that has allowed us to pro vide island workers
with specialised
training courses in \ustralia, and the results have ex zeeded our expec tations.
We set up the
anagram following
;uggestions made at a seminar of slands business people held in Suva in \pril last year. Those who attended, who included business people from the French territories, said there was a rreat need for local training programs n basic financial and management kills for people setting up small msinesses. There was also need for hort-term technical training overseas, n areas of expertise not available in the slands.
At the end of last year, Australia mnounced it would provide a budget or these programs, and some others, md they were put under the control of he Market Advisory Service of its Department of Foreign Affairs and frade.
The in-country specialist training is >eing provided by the Australia Execu ive Service Overseas Program Ltd AESOP), a self-help program that has >enefited hundreds of small businesses hroughout the islands. At the Trade Commission, we accepted the request o organise the short-term technical raining scheme, its costs met by an Wstralian-funded budget that pro ides selected applicants with air fares, ccommodation and tuition fees.
Since its launching in March, we lave been administering it in a similar ashion to our successful attachment >rogram, whose main purpose is to iclp island business people market sland products. Visits of those who rrive in Australia on attachment to he commission are short, perhaps a /eek or two and individually tailored o help the visitor get practical infor
nation quickly.
But the attachment program is mder the umbrella of SPARTECA, nd is virtually restricted to marketing natters. Unfortunately, we were also etting applications from people whose
only needs were for specialist courses, and we had to reject them. We re jected 30 appli cations in 1991.
The new
specialist
scheme over comes that
problem.
We are still running the at tachments pro grams, but since we began the specialist courses we have arranged train ing for 32
people from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Niue, Western Samoa and Tahiti. Their courses have included upholstery, wholesaling of motor ve hicle parts, fire-fighting, electrical con tracting, motor rewinding, light engin eering and fabrication, business plan ning, computer technical and training courses, butcher shop managing, TV and film operating and editing, sound engineering, drafting and building
construction, plant equipment main
tenance, studio photography, compu ter accountancy operations, refriger ation and washing-machine mainten ance, business English and accounting, and furniture removing. These courses have lasted from a week to six weeks, most of them for one to two weeks.
Many applicants have been seeking to upgrade their work skills, because it could put them in line for promotion, and others see the potential for starting up small businesses at home and have sought training outside their particular field. Others have wanted to start up their own repair businesses in fields they are familiar with. In most cases, bank loans have been dependent on them completing training courses.
Nada Widdowson, the commission’s administration officer, says all those who attended the specialist courses have been prepared to absorb as much as they can in the time, their only regret being they would have liked courses to be longer.
This may be possible. We may be able to train more people for longer, by accepting specialised groups at regular periods, rather than bringing in people individually throughout the year.
We are examining the results of the first six months with a great deal of optimism and satisfaction.