Fisheries training vital for industry workers

THERE is need for further collaboration and partnership with existing training and educational institutions to provide fishery education for those involved in the fishing industry, an industry consultation meeting was told.
Pete Celso from RD Tuna Canners in Madang said the fishing industry needed to work in collaboration with existing educational institutions in seeking a memorandum of understanding to develop further fishery training for the industry workforce.
He added that the industry also needed skilled manpower in the operation of fishing companies were needed for the growing fishing industry.
Celso said a major challenge for the industry was the lack of capability shown by Papua New Guinean crew members on fishing vessels who cannot stay out in the high seas.
Celso said training human resource was a very expensive exercise and the companies needed additional funding from the government and other donor agencies to help fund training programmes.
He said in his presentation that a way forward in addressing the gap would include hiring of additional set of foreign trainers to train locals and an immediate tie-up and working collaboration with training schools and institutions.
Meanwhile, the issue of PNG men not being able to stay out long on fishing vessels in the sea brought up a lot of discussion from the participants at the meeting who said it would be really good to find the answer to the problem and fill in the gap for the betterment of the growing industry.