The Industry Advisory Committee (IAC) met at the Heritage Park Hotel this week to formally validate and endorse two new Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) Micro-Qualifications (MQs).
The meeting marked the committee’s fourth and final session since it began its work in February 2025.
Welcoming stakeholders, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s (SPC) Team Leader for Ocean Management and Literacy, Tony Kabasi, said the new qualifications were designed to address current and emerging skills gaps in MSP work across the Pacific.
“Your collective expertise is essential to confirm that these qualifications meet the real-world needs of the region,” Kabasi said.
He said the endorsement represents the culmination of a rigorous, regionally collaborative process carried out in four key phases:
- Phase 1 – Establishment (February 2025): Formation of the IAC, bringing together key partners such as SPC, Conservation International (CI), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the WAITT Institute, and regional training providers including the Kiribati Institute of Technology, National University of Samoa, Solomon Islands National University (SINU), University of Fiji, and the University of the South Pacific (USP).
- Phase 2 – Development Workshop 1 (February 2025, Nadi, Fiji): Grounding the work in regional quality frameworks, including EQAP’s principles, the Pacific Qualifications Framework (PQF), and national qualification frameworks.
- Key output: Initial MSP MQ document detailing learning outcomes and performance criteria.
- Phase 3 – Development Workshops 2 and 3 (May and August 2025, Nadi, Fiji): Refinement of the qualifications by prioritising outcomes, setting appropriate qualification levels, finalising credit points, and defining purpose statements.
- Result: A robust, well-vetted draft ready for final validation.
Kabasi said the IAC’s validation focuses on ensuring that the two MQs are:
- Industry-relevant: Preparing graduates to be truly work-ready in MSP.
- Quality-assured: Meeting standards for regional recognition.
He added that successful endorsement will allow SPC’s EQAP to advance the MQs to their final approval stage.
“This work is a crucial investment in the capacity of our Pacific people and the sustainable management of our marine resources,” Kabasi said.
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and US Department of State have supported the initiative.
