The Republic of Fiji Military Forces Naval Division con­ducted physical fitness and aptitude tests yesterday for short­listed applicants in its latest re­cruitment drive.

Navy spokesperson Lieutenant Commander Timoci Natuva said they received between 800 to 900 applications early this month and had been given clearance to recruit 60 personnel.

The new recruits will fill special­ised positions such as group six drivers, chefs, marine engineers, electrical engineers, electronic technicians and musicians for a newly formed Fijian Navy brass band.

Lieutenant Commander Natuva said the recruitment was depend­ent on the need to fill gaps left by Navy officers who had retired.

“Now people are retiring and the turnover rate of retiring is quite high,” he said.

“With those people leaving, they leave with years of experience and we need to replace that experience so we are targeting certain groups.

“People who joined in 1987 are all phasing out slowly and in a year, we can have five or six people with experience and that is why we are doing recruitment now.

“We did one (recruitment) last year and before that our last re­cruitment was in 2011.

“It depends on the vacancies that are available and also now we are having new ships that are coming in.”

He said the capabilities and ca­pacity needed on board their new vessels were a different makeup altogether.

“The response has been positive,” he said.

“We interviewed a number of good potentials and now we are testing the physical aspects of training whether they can swim, whether they are confident and then we will finalise with the medi­cal board early next week.”

Edited by Percy Kean

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