CAPTION: Newly appointed Manager of RCCCE, Mr Hasmukh Lal.
The University of the South Pacific recently announced the appointment of Mr Hasmukh Lal as the Manager of the University’s Regional Centre for Continuing and Community Education (RCCCE) based at the Statham Campus in Suva.
Mr Lal, who took up his position in December 2012, will manage and lead all operations of RCCCE under Director Commercial Operations.
In expressing delight on his appointment, Mr Lal said that his new role will help him to further develop continuing and community education at USP, an area that he is passionate about.
“I feel privileged to be given an opportunity to grow vocational and professional training at the regional level. I will try my best to work with internal and external stakeholders to help the centre reach its full potential.”
Highlighting the importance of continuing and community education, Mr Lal pointed out that continuous training is the way to curb complexities at workplaces. He added that practical TVET training could offer a possible solution to the growing youth unemployment in the region.
Given RCCCE’s capacity in the vocational area, Mr Lal elaborated that the centre has the potential to provide TVET training in the region using various modes of teaching and learning at USP.
His immediate plans are to set up proper governance structure of RCCCE. This involves working with the University’s faculties to work out credit transfers for RCCCE programmes and pathways into academic programmes.
Mr Lal said his team is working to provide continuous improvement to the centre’s programmes to ensure that these are in compliance for the processes of international accreditation.
“We are also engaged in strengthening and diversifying professional development trainings for public and private sectors,” he added.
Mr Lal brings with him extensive experience in the area of continuing and community education. He joined RCCCE after being the Manager for continuing and community education at the USP Lautoka Campus. He was also a part of the Professional Development Unit of the Ministry of Education in Fiji under an AusAID funded Fiji Education Sector Program.
He attained his bachelor’s degree and masters from USP.