Training And Upskilling Contributes to the Resilience and Growth of Business: Hon Faiyaz Koya 

“There is no doubt that continued training and upskilling contributes to the resilience and growth of businesses, whether it be a large entity or an MSME. As trainers, your knowledge and direction will greatly boost business development and ultimately our economic recovery efforts. so you’ll need to make the most of every opportunity you get because it’s you who will now shape the minds of others.”
These were the sentiments shared by Hon. Faiyaz Koya, Minister for Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport, while opening the Introduction to Develop the Entrepreneurship Trainer Program to support iTaukei and Rotuman small businesses in Suva today.
“Even though as a nation we have grown to harness technology and stay connected, when it comes to learning, I think we can all agree there’s nothing like having face-to-face interaction,” said Hon. Koya.
The workshop is jointly organised by the iTaukei Trust Fund Board (TTFB), Ministry of Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport (MCTTT) and Australian Government’s Market Development Facility (MDF).
A similar workshop was conducted for local entrepreneur trainers in Lautoka last week.
Close to 40 local business trainers representing MCTTT, TTFB, iTaukei Affairs Board, iTaukei Lands Trust Board, Fiji Council of Social Services and Centre for Appropriate Technology Development (Nadave) are participating in the two workshops.
The initiative aims to upskill the trainers and provide them relevant resources and toolkits to support their effective delivery of business training and mentoring services for Fijian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), including from the island of Rotuma.
“As a participant, I wish to acquire the relevant skills and knowledge first of all to set up my own business before I can train and educate others on how to run a successful business and secondly to become an accredited trainer in the community,” said TTFB Acting Senior Programme Specialist, Unaisi Manulevu.
“What I find most interesting is that an entrepreneur is a risk taker who aims to solve problems within the community. I hope that by the end of this workshop, I would understand my audience, the problems faced within and the community and how my business set up will help address those issues.
“I wish to acknowledge the partners for such a great initiative to upskill trainers from the relevant organisations,” Ms. Manulevu added.
The workshops in Lautoka and Suva are conducted by International Master Trainer Steve Cordeiro, who has been part of the success of the Fiji Enterprise Engine (FEE) business accelerator program which is run by the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation in partnership with MDF.
The ‘develop the entrepreneurship trainer’ initiative draws from lessons learnt from the highly successful FEE program and combines it with an approach and tools to business training and mentoring which has now also been specifically customised for community based and co-operative MSMEs.

The workshop is jointly organized by the iTaukei Trust Fund Board (TTFB), the Ministry of Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport (MCTTT), and the Australian Government’s Market Development Facility (MDF).