First Management Training for seasonal workers

It was a historical day for Vete Cooperative Savings and Loan Society Limited when they witnessed a large number of trainees received their certificates for the first ever management training for seasonal workers conducted in Vanuatu.

A total of 120 people proudly received their certificates after attending a two-day workshop on Certificate 3 in Management for Result. Participants came from all the six provinces and with ages ranged from 18 years to 60 years and over.

Chairman of Vete Coop, Former MP for Port Vila Constituency, David Abel stated that it is a long time dream come true for them.

Despite the fact that the Commission of Labour once described the Vete Coop Association as a “con-employment agent for seasonal workers”, the Chairman of Vete Coop was pleased to announce that the Labour Commission has given an okay sign for them to be agents for the Season Work Program (SWP) in Australia. He said it is not officially approved yet, but they are in the process towards that achievement.

The Former MP stated that since Australia is a foreign country, they felt that it was important for the seasonal workers to acquire some knowledge on management before they actually go there.

According to the MP’s understanding, it is a requirement that the workers will have to go through training in Australia before doing the actual job that they are purposely there for, therefore, with the management training; they could at least be familiar with it.

Conducted by expert and private training provider, Rodney Banga of R B Management Consultants, the module of the training was designed by him and specifically for this purpose. The training certificates were also aggregated by Vanuatu National Training Council (VNTC), another plus for the seasonal workers.

Former MP Abel noted that there may be certain requirements for the interested seasonal workers regarding their ages, but, that would not be a problem for workers in this case, as the Abel is heavily involved with the Vanuatu Australia Inc. Connection and Black Birding as that is already a guarantee for the Association and especially the seasonal workers.

On the other hand, the department of Labour has confirmed that from the experiences from the New Zealand workers, lack of training given to the seasonal workers is one of the contributing factors towards the issues that the New Zealand seasonal workers are currently experiencing.

The labour officer challenged the participants to make good use of the knowledge they have acquired during the training.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of Vete Cooperative Association admitted that they are hoping that vey soon Labour Commission could officially give the green light, so they could start sending their workers to Australia under SWP.