For the first time, the Republic of the Military Forces (RFMF) is sending office cadets to a number of overseas institutions.
Previously only commissioned officers were provided such training opportunities.
Of the 116 officers who passed out last Friday, 29 were chosen for the Required Officer Selection Board (ROSB) of which four are women.
To be part of the Officer Cadet Course, applicants have to under-go the ROSB process, then they go through the basic recruitment training before they are selected for the officer cadet programme.
RFMF Commander, Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai said they received a lot of offers for officers training overseas.
He said three cadet officers had already left for Australia and were undergoing their third week of training. The three included two males and a female.
“The first offer was from Australia to the Royal Military College at Duntroon, they initially started their semester last three weeks ago, so the three went to that Military College,” Major-General said.
He said the cadets would have to go through the recruitment process again under the Australian Army.
In the last pass-out parade, Jovilisi Bob Suka from Nasautoka Village in Wainibuka, Tailevu with maternal links to Tobou Village in Lakeba, Lau was awarded the Best All Around recruit.
Major-General Kalouniwai said they identified recruits who have the potential to be sent overseas for officer training.
“We usually do it in Fiji but we thought that it would be manageable for us to send them overseas because we have a lot of offers coming from overseas, before we used to send those that have already been commissioned,” he said.
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