13 technical colleges provided short courses to 9,419 students in 2016 – Dr. Reddy

The establishment of 13 technical colleges around the country has enabled the Education Ministry to provide short courses to 9,419 students in 2016.

This was highlighted by the Education Minister Dr. Mahendra Reddy when asked by government MP Ruveni Nadalo to provide an update on the community outreach programme and community run courses that the Technical College of Fiji Campuses are facilitating.

Reddy added that of the 9,419 students, 8,041 students undertook the courses at the various technical colleges while 548 undertook the courses from the technical college trainers at their various village settlements.

107 campus trainers also undertook short course training at the Water Authority of Fiji, while several technical college trainers are training 34 inmates at the Fiji Corrections Services.

Dr Reddy stressed that technical colleges are a major educational strategy that the government has adopted to ensure that they reach out to those students that are not able to make it to Universities.

Reddy also highlighted that not all parents and students have the confidence or security to walk up to the doors of these colleges to enquire the necessary information on the types of courses and programmes.

He says there are a number of strategies in place to get the necessary information out to students and members of the community and this is important in order to get maximum benefit out of these institutions.