The Tertiary Scholarships and Loans Service (TSLS) Board has welcomed the recent budget announcement made by the Fijian Government. The TSLS Board acknowledges the commitment made by the Fijian Government to invest and empower Fiji’s future.

The TSLS Board Chairman, Mr. Rakesh Ram said the allocation of $156m in 2021-2022 revised budget being increased to $162m is a resonance from the Fijian Government of its unwavering, escalating and innovative investments in tertiary education and TSLS is pleased with the announcement of the new schemes and grant allocations.

“Building human capital for the Fijian workforce will be a strategic priority for economic recovery and all facets of nation building. The global labour market trend is seeing developing countries loosing skilled workers to developed ones. As a developing country, Fiji needs to continuously and at a time, aggressively invest in talent development to keep the skills set supply in the workforce”, he said.

The Fijian Government has allocated $1.2 billion since inception of Tertiary Scholarships and Loans Service (TSLS) and $162m adds further. The big and bold step will be taken as the record, in the Fijian history to award in total of 9200 scholarships and study loans for the 2022-2023 budget. In addition, 200 awards for grants for micro qualifications for construction skills set and $100 per month industrial attachment allowance which will also include private students for the first time. The grants will have no strings attached.

He further highlighted that the Fijian Government has made significant strides in addressing inequities and inequalities to ensure “no Fijian is left behind” from accessing tertiary education and help transform lives and workforce with changing labour market pattern.

Scholarships and study loans for Postgraduate diploma, Masters and Ph.D is another milestone on Government’s strong push for innovation, research led planning and development and creation of new knowledge for a knowledge based society. Rebranding TVET to skills qualifications and establishing a new skills qualifications scholarship scheme is both; radical and contemporary measure to give equal respect and acceptance against qualifications classified as higher education or level 7 and above in the Fiji Qualifications Framework.

The Board and management looks forward working with all key stakeholders at all levels to continue to build Fiji’s human capital.

ENDS.