Businessman Sandeep Chauhan claims that despite holding several meetings with tertiary institutions, there have been minimal to no steps taken to fulfill the private sector requirements.

Chauhan questions who the private sector should hold accountable when it comes to such inaction.

He says the private sector cannot wait, and if the education institutions are unable to provide the right resources, investors will go offshore.

Chauhan made these remarks during a panel discussion on Addressing Quality in Fiji’s Tertiary Education.

“Every tertiary university or tertiary institution has a panel. You’d send your members out into the private sector and say, converse with them, tell us what do they want? Do you ever go back and check with them whether they are meeting those criteria? Are they meeting the industry needs? If they’re not, we’re not going to get anywhere. We can talk about this for many, many, many years. This has been going on for 15 years. I haven’t seen that happen. I haven’t seen the changes.”

Chauhan further states that Fiji cannot continue to solely rely on the tourism sector for economic growth.

“From a business perspective, if your GDP on tourism is 70%, or even if it’s 40%, you want to divest that. You want your economy to be at $3 billion? That’s fine. But tourism should not account for $2 billion of the $3 billion. You want to grow that so that tourism stays at $2 billion, but the economy grows at $5 billion, and then you’ve got other industries contributing and having growth into your economy.”

Meanwhile Assistant Minister of the Office of the Prime Minister Sakiusa Tubuna says they are aware of the concerns raised by the employers on the quality of graduates.

Tubuna says the new National Development Plan will guide policy makers and academics to develop programs suited to industry needs.