Fiji eyes skilled workers from India to fill labour shortages

Employment Minister Agni Deo Singh said Fiji is exploring recruiting skilled workers from India because “a lot of our people have migrated to greener pastures.”

Speaking to this masthead after opening a workshop on Indigenous and Tribal People’s Convention, Mr Singh said the said the partnership would help fill critical worker shortages in construction, healthcare and information technology.

Cabinet on Tuesday endorsed a Declaration of Intent between Fiji and the Indian Immigration Department to explore recruitment of skilled workers from India.

“We know that India has a large pool of skilled workers and professionals that we can source from mainly in the IT sector, in the health sector and in the top trades where employers are complaining to us that there is a dire shortage,” he said.

Mr Singh said the worker shortage resulted from two factors - local migration and the previous government’s closure of technical colleges.

“The shortage has eventuated because of a lot of our people having migrated to greener pastures,” he said.

“At the same time the gap that was created in the last 10 years because of the closure of the technical colleges and the technical vocational centers of the secondary schools which left a big void in terms of technical vocational training.”

‘Advertise locally twice’

He assured that strict guidelines would protect local jobs, requiring employers to advertise positions locally twice before seeking foreign workers.

“The employers in Fiji have to advertise it locally twice and if they are not able to access anyone from the local environment then only they can advertise outside,” Mr Singh said.

Ten registered agents in Fiji are authorised to recruit overseas workers, with the Immigration Ministry monitoring the process.

The Government has reopened technical colleges and allocated more scholarships to vocational training to address the skills gap.

“This is a catching up game for us so we need to continue to train more skilled people so that we can fill in the labour market,” he said.

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