A senior academic has asked the Government to consider lowering the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) minimum qualification requirement (MQR) for students whowish to apply for a TELS placement in the field ofstudy.

Fiji National Univeristy  College of Vocational Education and Training (CVET), Acting Dean, Salabogi Mavoa raised the point to Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Economy, Acting Prime Minister and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, during a Q & A session at the 2022-2023 National Budget Consultation held at the Fiji National University, Samabula Campus yesterday.

Mr Mavoa said there were 5000 TVET placements on offer by TELS and only 1500 were filled.

“Looking at the Minimum Qualification Requirementthat is set for the TVET scholarships, it is a pass in forms 6 and 7,” he said.

“Traditionally, our TVET students are those that have dropped out of form 6 and form 5.

By lowering the MQR, more students can access the  TVET scholarships.”

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said the submission could be considered and discussed more.

“I think the idea was at one point in time a lot of people dropped out of year 10, year 11 and some had dropped out of year 8 and year 9,” he said.

“I think the idea was that there was a particular level of comprehension of the English language needed be- cause some of these people when they get their trade they start a business so there should be some level of fi-nancial literacy.

“You see there are some

who start off their business but they don’t know how to manage their money, some have fantastic skill sets but the idea to move them up the ladder.

That is something that we can consider.” The A-G said..

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