The government has announced a new scheme to fund 20 students to pursue PhD and masters in priority research areas at selected universities in Australia.

Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad says the tuition cost will be borne by the Australian University while the Government will provide partial support to cover for airfares, stipend and any other associated cost.

He has thanked the Australian Universities for this partnership and sum of $1.4 million has been allocated for this.

Prasad says they are also introducing a merit based in-service overseas scholarship for postgraduate diploma in specialized areas.

A sum of $1.6 million is allocated to fund 20 in-service students to undertake specialist postgraduate diplomas in health, veterinary science and engineering studies.

To fill the skill gap in certain trade areas, the government is partnering with the industry players to provide in-house training which will be recognized by the Higher Education Commission.

“We have allocated scholarships for 300 students who can undertake Certificate III, IV or Diploma level 5 programmes with our industry partners like Energy Fiji Limited, Marriott Academy, FSC, Telecom and some other large employers that will come on board. The employers will have the opportunity to employ these students upon successful completion of the programme.”

Prasad says the new scheme is a grant based support to assist our graduates to start a business and become job creators, rather than job seekers.

He says this they need to support the young and creative entrepreneurs.

Prasad adds that incentivizing apprenticeship training in the current financial year has attracted huge confidence of employers and students in the scheme.

Under this scheme, the employer pays $2 whilst the government pays the additional cost to ensure that the national minimum wage rate is paid to those on apprenticeship scheme.

The number of awards for this scheme for 2024-2025 Financial Year will increase from 400 to 500 awards.

The Finance Minister says on average, government spends $400,000 to fund a student on an overseas scholarship.