To improve Pacific graduates’ access to further education and skilled employment across the region and abroad, the Pacific Community (SPC) and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) have launched the Pacific Qualifications Recognition Project.
The newly launched project aims to strengthen the Pacific Qualifications Framework (PQF) and the qualifications systems of nine Pacific Island countries to support Pacific people’s access to relevant and quality-assured qualifications that can also be recognised in other countries. The Pacific countries involved in the project are the Cooks Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
Itzy Tukuitonga, Project Coordinator for the New Zealand Aid Education Support Programme, emphasised that “We would want to see our people move without restrictions, assist each other in filling the labour market and assisting people to move freely. We want to be assured that everyone is qualified and that we have confidence in what we do and have confidence in our people”.
Qualifications frameworks and the quality assurance systems that support them are structures that can ensure that learning is relevant and Pacific graduates are equipped with the skills they need to thrive in employment in both national communities and the global economy.
In the Pacific, national and regional qualifications systems need support and further development to access relevant, quality-assured qualifications that support national economic development and can also be recognised in other countries.
In response to this challenge, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) is funding the Pacific Qualifications Recognition project. From 2024-2028, SPC and NZQA will work closely with the nine countries to strengthen the Pacific and national qualifications frameworks and systems to support the recognition of qualifications, enabling the movement of learners and skilled workers across borders.
NZQA’s Tautai Pasifika – Project Lead - Pacific Qualifications Recognition, Alison Dittmer Croad, explained that “NZQA is pleased to partner with SPC and the Pacific region – through this work we hope to build greater trust in the quality of qualifications across the Pacific region, so Pacific people are more easily able to use their qualifications to access skilled employment”.
In the Pacific, SPC is ‘home’ to the PQF, a regional qualifications framework that increases transparency about quality assurance in national and regional education systems and supports the recognition of qualifications from these education systems within and outside of the Pacific region.
Over the next five years of the project, SPC and NZQA will work closely with the Pacific national agencies to establish strong, trusted relationships between the PQF and Pacific and New Zealand national qualifications frameworks and systems. This will, in time, enable new opportunities for Pacific communities as the quality of post-secondary education delivery in the region increases.
The launch of the project coincided with a regional workshop on qualifications framework referencing in Wellington, where national representatives of the Pacific worked with SPC and NZQA to learn about the purpose of referencing qualifications frameworks, applying referencing criteria and determining comparability between different frameworks, to support qualification recognition.
The Pacific Community’s Team Leader for Qualifications, Rajendra Prasad, emphasised the project's vision to “Strengthen the Pacific Qualifications Framework and its supporting structures and processes, so the regional system for qualifications and quality assurance can be of even greater benefit to the Pacific region.”
The project implementing partners, SPC and NZQA, have planned activities and events over the next five years to advance the project’s outcomes that will ultimately work to remove barriers to employment by helping governments and employers understand how Pacific peoples’ knowledge and skills compare with graduates of their own country’s education system.
About the Pacific Qualifications Recognition Project:
Funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), the Pacific Qualifications Recognition project aims to strengthen the Pacific and national qualifications frameworks and systems that will promote the recognition of qualifications, enabling the movement of learners and skilled workers across borders. The five-year project is jointly implemented by the Pacific Community (SPC) in partnership with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).
