The co-ordinator of a Pacific fisheries course in New Zealand is hoping the new intake of students will learn how to address the challenges faced in their island countries.
The 18 trainees from nine nations including Solomon Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu and Kiribati began the Pacific Fisheries Extension Officer Course yesterday.
The programme co-ordinator, Alec Woods says the 18 week course is aimed at developing sustainable and profitable fishing operations in the Pacific and comprises practical and theory based work.
"What they'll be doing over that period is doing some work on communications and extension, in other words how to actually be a teacher, how to pass skills on to other adults. And they'll be doing some basic safety work around sea survival and firefighting, first aid. And they'll be doing some business management and computer skills."
Alec Woods.
The New Zealand Government is providing over 380 thousand US dollars to fund the programme as part of on-going efforts to support Pacific fisheries.
