Seventy-five college graduates have registered with Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga’s Post-Graduate Apprenticeship Program, in which ASG will partner with the private sector to place Bachelor and Masters degree holders in management positions in private businesses around the island.

This program—a first of its kind— was announced in previous cabinet meetings and it’s in its first stage, says Acting Human Resources Director Eseneiaso Nafanua Liu, in response to Samoa News queries.

The Governor’s Executive Assistant Iulogologo Joseph Pereira said that this move is to attract college graduates who return home, to assure them that they will have a meaningful job when they return.  Iu said that the move started about three months ago by the Department of Human Resources is to register college graduates who are currently on island, unemployed or underemployed looking for different more meaningful work. 

Iu said the government will pay 50% of the salary of the employee placed in a management job by a private sector company for one full year at the end of which the employer will maintain the employee full time.

“The Governor's objective is to move college graduates into the private sector in line with his private sector expansion mandate and also to attract our college graduates home by providing assurances that they will have a meaningful job when they come home.

The Governor was also briefed by Director of Commerce Keniseli Lafaele on the State Small Business Credit Initiative, or SSBCI and the inherent private investments, which will result if the US Department of Labor approves our revised application to access the SSBCI funds.

Proposed investments will bring the types of industries that will require college graduates. One of the points that yielded full consensus during Western Governor’s Association Chair Fallin's Job's Initiative is that a high school diploma is no longer enough in today’s job market and with global demands. The Acting HR Director told Samoa News that out of the 75 college graduates who have registered so far, 50 hold AA degrees, 22 have BAs and three hold Masters degrees.

Mrs Liu urges the college graduates to come in and register for this program, given that the government cannot employ all the college graduates, and with this program college students should be able to land other jobs.

She explained that when the governor returns they will take further steps toward this program. Mrs Liu also stated that the Department of Education was fortunate, given the shortage of teachers, to hire teachers who registered with this program. She also noted that when there are slots open within the government, they will choose from this pool of college graduates who have registered.