CETC’s programme development has taken a step further with the establishment of curriculum experts for the different subject areas.

The first teams to meet were the Health/Nutrition and Agriculture teams.  The experts were selected because of their technical expertise and experience in both teaching and work in their respective sectors.  

The Health and Nutrition team comprised Mrs Jimaima Schultz, manager of the Fiji National Food and Nutrition Committee; Dr Jimaima Lako, Lecturer, Faculty of Science, Technology and Environment at the University of the South Pacific (USP); Ms Vulori Sarai, Nutrition Coordinator at USP and Mrs Atelini Koroi, Health and Nutrition instructor at CETC, with online input from Karen Fukofuka, Nutritional Adviser from SPC’s Public Health Division.

The Agriculture team comprised Mrs Asinate Moroca, Senior Lecturer, Agriculture Faculty at Fiji National University; Mr Savenaca Cuquma, Senior Research Officer at the Koronivia Research Station; Mr Viliame Viliame Cegumalua, consultant; Ms Marita Manley, Climate Change Advisor, SPC; Mr Andrew Tukana, Project Technical Assistant, Land Resource Division (LRD), SPC; Mr Tevita Kete, Export Processing and Marketing Officer, LRD, SPC; Mr Simione Tukidia, Publications Assistant, LRD, SPC and Mr Aminiasi Driu, Agriculture nstructor at CETC. The first advisory meeting of these experts groups was held on Wednesday 16 November at CETC.

The aim of the meeting was for CETC’s course development programmers to get advice and information on the courses it will offer and to consider the composition of blueprints for a certificate course in Level 2 Health / Nutrition and Horticulture in the context of the Fiji Qualifications Framework and the Pacific Qualifications Framework. One of CETC’s planned outputs for 2012 is a new qualifications structure for specialised studies in an agricultural area and a health / nutrition related area. The consultant, Mr Viliame Cegumalua, operates his own dairy farm. He said that this meeting is useful to help boost the training in communities and link it with the training providers. 

Mrs Jimaima Schultz, a former nutrition adviser for the SPC Healthy Lifestyle Programme in Noumea who was also involved in the development of the CETC Health and Nutrition curriculum, said, ‘We achieved a lot of what we set out to do at this meeting. We looked at a number of courses with a view to getting them cross-credited so that CETC graduates can do further studies in other institutions.’ And Ms Vulori Sarai said, ‘This is a very relevant meeting.

 As of now, we will be working on curriculum mapping and determining content level and inclusion of credit points to staircase to other institutions or universities.’ The technical working group meeting will be followed by the meeting of the first Programme Advisory Council of CETC in February. The members are drawn from SPC countries and are experts in the field of adult training and community development. They also include SPC technical experts.