Construction Council Opens New Office
With more than 15,000 construction industry tradesmen with many included in the 17 associations that make up the Construction Industry Council, yesterday is a historical day.
CIC has launched its own office on the campus of the Fiji National University Samabula campus, a first for the council.
“We felt it essential to have our own office to be fully operational in not only servicing our associations but in working closely with Government, and not forget, we are located in the middle of an institution of learning that gives us access to a number of resources,” said CIC chief executive officer, Vijay Naidu.
A major step in CIC development was its conference held the previous June with 370 delegates.
About quality
Fiji Higher Education Commission (FHEC) director Linda Aumua was the event guest speaker.
Ms Aumua said: “FHEC oversees the quality assurance of places like FNU, University of the South Pacific, University of Fiji and all the universities or higher education institutions.
“Quality is something we actually have to oversee and that’s a huge task as you can imagine.
“One of the roles we are currently doing is developing national qualifications.
“The national qualifications are certificates that students come out of the institutions with and take in to the industry.
“What we want is for every institution including FNU to deliver national qualifications.
“Because national qualifications are done in partnership with industry.”
She highlighted that industry should be developing the qualifications even with FHEC working alongside them.
“We encourage this relationship that we have where the industry is inside the organisation, the challenge for you CIC is how you are going to distribute yourself across all sectors so that FNU doesn’t own you and you are not seemed to be owned.
“There is possibility we could partner with industry to regulate and quality assure your industries.
“We haven’t gone to that phase yet but most countries have, so we have them as industry training organisations (ITO) where your council will work alongside FHEC, and we would visit people who wish to offer site training or be encouraged to be part of the apprentice scheme so they must carry quality assurance certification.
“There is a lot of things FHEC can do in partnership with organisations such as yours.”
She applauded the organisation for the milestone achievement.
Feedback: maraia.vula@fijisun.com.fj
