Seychelles’ marine biodiversity is only part of what makes for a thriving aquaculture sector – a diverse workforce equipped with necessary skills and know-how is needed just as much. Through the Human Capital Development Plan (HCDP), Seychelles mounts another blue economy pillar by complementing marine conversation initiatives with sufficient, skilled staffing to facilitate the growth and continuity of the sector.
HCDP aims to address Seychelles’ need for manpower in the aquaculture sector through workforce planning and analysis, strategic partnerships, continuous learning, and technology-assisted recruitment and retention. This goal is achieved through upstream and downstream approaches, i.e., reinforcing awareness of the socioeconomic benefits of aquaculture and cultivating capacity within its human resources, respectively.
Human capital management will be rolled out in three stages: planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. This process is further guided by the Human Capital Assessment and Accountability Framework (HCAAF), which targets the following:
One of the routes considered in jumpstarting the aquaculture sector was opening Seychelles to proposals from international companies. However, it was deemed more sustainable to cultivate local specialists in the field instead. The latter is likely to be more resource-intensive in the short and medium term and will take more time before reaching the target revenue, but this way, Seychelles also retains dominant control of the sector, creating more favorable long-term benefits. Through this vision and considering a mid-road scenario, local workforce demand was forecasted, and training plans were laid out accordingly.
Overall, this project was able to scope Seychelles’ aquaculture workforce, locate gaps in the quality and quantity of its skill base, and propose human capital development initiatives to fill these gaps.