A lecturer at the National University of Samoa, Guliano Bryce believes that carpentry and joinery courses for students are the way to go.

He believes that in the future these courses would promote sustainability.

"I'm quite excited to come back and give back to our people especially young, energetic males and females who are interested in carpentry," he said.

"In carpentry, we undergo a lot of challenges in terms of funding for our resources and materials. We have our Open Day and we wanted to promote sustainability," he said. 

"That's the message we're sending out. Also, the projects that we are displaying are all from disregarded timber that we've been able to recycle and bring to life. 

"Doesn't matter if it's disregarded timber or wood. Carpentry and what I'm bringing back from Uni Tech is sustainability. It's a good message for the them to make use of materials in the proper way."

He has been teaching at N.U.S for almost a decade, and he recently graduated from Uni Tech in Auckland with a Bachelors in Construction Management. He is one of the three lecturers who are currently teaching the course at the university.

"From my nine years in teaching, we've had almost 10 females who have come and graduated through Carpentry and Joinery. This year, we are so fortunate to have a very matured student. 

"She graduated from NUS with a Bachelors in Commerce. However, life turned and she was interested in Carpentry. Her business background and now wants to pursue Construction. She's a wonderful student. Very engaged student. The age barrier is nothing to her.

"She is really happy to sit down with the boys, no matter how many times I say "Please Tai come up here" She's happy to sit with the young boys and students. I think in 2008 we had two female students, and that was the only recorded year we had more than one student."

The 32-year-old said the challenge they currently face is the lack of funding. The standard that they want to reach cannot be done with the funds made available for them to work on.

"The number one challenge that we have, I'm so sorry NUS, in terms of funding and I speak not just for carpentry but across all programs we struggle with the same issue in terms of the standard we want to reach however the funding that we have to operate on cannot support us in that way. 

"So we've been asked to promote and market your programs because you are the legs and hands, the tools for Samoa's economy. They preach "Please raise your standard" however the support and funding are terrible. So that's the issue that we have.

"I'm bringing a whole range of different techniques in terms of software and stuff but the NUS cannot support us in terms of funding. Regarding the policies and restrictions that we have here at NUS, one cannot just go out and be enthusiastic about it. 

"We have to be careful, we need to go through processes, to ensure that we don't do things that are not required of us. Of course, I can and I have much capability to reach out, but there's concerns or barriers that we shouldn't be able to step on toes in that matter."

He also shared how the Samoan cultural values act as a barrier for females to join the carpentry and joinery course. He believes that with respect being the highly regarded value in the faasamoa it has become a barrier for females to join the course. With their female student, the male students sees her as the "pupil of their eye" so they never see her as a student but as their elder. So the respect they have for her is very impressive.

Guliano has no issue with the culture in fact he said he appreciates the faasamoa as it shows our morals.