Anaseini Vuidravuwalu garlands NTPC Director Dr Isimeli Tagicakiverata.

Nineteen women from Makoi Vocational Training Centre are in a better position to systemically carry out tasks as per garment industry standards following a weeklong attachment with the Fiji National University’s National Training and Productivity Centre (NTPC) Fashion Incubation Centre in Nabua.

To complement the training with the Vocational Centre, the women were provided with the experience of utilising industrial-based machines.

The Head of Training, Department of Tourism, Hospitality, Fashion and Travel Dr Akash Gupta said NTPC was always willing to provide industry-based experience to help students better assimilate to working environments.

“Our team helped the women to learn new skills and enhance old ones, to translate them into proper ventures,” he said.

“It is a proud moment for NTPC as it gives us great satisfaction to see Fijian women who have taken up this opportunity available to them, to put their skills, traditional knowledge, entrepreneurial abilities, and artistic aptitudes to use, which can later assist them to generate income.”

Makoi Vocational Training Centre manager Shazna Khan said the collaboration with NTPC and the Australia Pacific Training Coalition (APTC) allows students to achieve higher standards in fashion and broaden technical knowledge and advance fashion locally and internationally.

“The fashion industry in Fiji is growing rapidly and I am thankful to the management of NTPC and APTC, who had the vision and invested in the opening of the Fashion Incubation Centre in 2020, to provide fashion design and technology training to the people in Fiji,” she said.

“We will always welcome partnerships such as this in the future to help improve access to education services, particularly for disadvantaged segments of the population, including women living with disabilities.”

Arieta Vulimaidavuilevu receives her completion letter from NTPC Director Dr Isimeli Tagicakiverata

For Arieta Vulimaidavuilevu the experience places her in a better position to start her business.

“I am grateful for this experience because it provided me with an opportunity to create a revenue stream that could assist my family, particularly my eldest son and his wife who are mute,” she said.

“By transferring what I have learned and working with them to start their own business, they will become more independent. My husband and I will not always be around, and we want to prepare them for the inevitable.”

NTPC Director, Dr Isimeli Tagicakiverata in congratulating the participants said the training helps ensure students meet industry expectations.

“The skills and competence gained from this training will assist families and communities in different ways because it opens up opportunities for small businesses or employment in the fashion and garment industry,” he said.

He added that participants could now become ambassadors for their own communities and assist unemployed youths and school leavers by showing them possible training pathways that could enable income generation.