AUSTRALIA will spend $FJD359.8 million on skills development in Fiji and Timor-Leste over 2025-2029, as Canberra moves to deepen its regional training footprint through a new programme focused on jobs, industry needs and vocational reform.
The Pacific Australia Skills initiative replaces the Australian Pacific Training Coalition (APTC), which officially ended in March 2025, and will work with local authorities and training providers rather than directly delivering training itself, organisers said at the launch of the Vuvale (Family) Skills Hub in Fiji.
“Pacific Australia Skills is Australia’s new regional development programme supporting skills and training across the Pacific and Timor-Leste,” said Gareth McGrath, Pacific Australia Skills Country Director for Fiji.
He said the programme was designed around “quality skills training for employment purposes, not training for training’s sake,” adding that it aims to produce “tangible employment outcomes.”
McGrath said the new model was intended to strengthen local systems and trainers while leaving the programme locally led.
“This is training for the future,” he said.
The refurbished Vuvale Skills Hub, located off Foster Road, Walu Bay, Suva, Fiji, which was previously used by APTC, will serve as a shared resource for Fiji’s TVET providers.
McGrath said the centre had been fitted with “state-of-the-art equipment and resources” and would be used in partnership with Fijian institutions.
When asked whether the move was simply a rebrand, he replied: “I hope not, because it would be very expensive if it were.”
He later added that Pacific Australia Skills would build on APTC’s legacy but operate “with new ways of working.”
He said the programme will target skills shortages in areas including maritime, digital economy and construction, based on advice from Fiji’s Higher Education Commission, the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation and the National Employment Centre.
Partner institutions include the Fiji National University, the University of the South Pacific, Pacific TAFE, the Centre for Appropriate Technology and Development, and several vocational training centres.
The Vuvale facility is expected to host up to 75 students on the floor at a time and nearly 100 in the classroom area, and there would be no formal fee structure at this stage, with institutions expected to contribute in kind.
Australia has long been one of the Pacific’s biggest development partners, and the new programme comes as it seeks to align aid spending more closely with workforce demand and economic growth.
