BPP Partnership Impact Series: Growing talent in Samoa with new pathways to skilled employment

Since its launch, the Business Partnerships Platform (BPP) has worked with ambitious partners to deliver meaningful, lasting change in communities across the world. Our BPP Partnership Impact Series celebrates the outcomes and lessons from partnerships, highlighting their contributions to inclusive economic growth, resilience and sustainable development.

Our COVID-19 Recovery partnership in Samoa was established to support jobs in accounting for Samoans, creating highly skilled job opportunities locally. The partnership ended in 2024 after successfully supporting the response to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic.

Local support adds up

In Samoa, a BPP partnership between WE Mana and the Australian Government is addressing the country’s “brain drain” by growing meaningful and inclusive employment opportunities for locals in professional accounting services.

The partnership supported Samoan graduates to develop their skills in processing financial statements, tax returns and client reports for international firms. This created training pathways, provided high-value jobs and met growing demand for accountancy services from Australia and New Zealand.

The program especially focused on providing more training and work opportunities for women and people with a disability.

About the partnership

Accountancy has long been seen as a desirable career in Samoa but limited local demand previously meant that many graduates had to take lower-skilled jobs or look for work overseas. The COVID-19 pandemic further reduced opportunities across key sectors like tourism and international trade.

Through this partnership, international demand, particularly from New Zealand and Australia, is now driving new local job creation, enabling more Samoans to stay and work in skilled roles at home. With the support of the partnership, WE Mana has become a model for how Samoa can tap into global digital markets turning talent retention into economic opportunity. By keeping graduates in-country and creating meaningful work aligned with international standards, the firm is helping to transform Samoa’s workforce from brain drain to brain gain.

Impact

During the BPP partnership period, the impact included:

• Local job creation – skilled workers are able to secure work.  
• Stronger families and culture – by enabling international and job and economic opportunities at home, family and culture ties can be preserved and strengthened
• New skills pathways – improved training has upskilled graduates and helped them secure work across the public sector and private firms.
• Supporting staff wellbeing – weekly Te Whare Tapa Rima sessions supporting the mental health and resilience of employees.
• Investment in youth – training in leadership, work-readiness and modern accountancy practices saw more young people secure employment and grow in confidence.
• Growing a digital workforce – navigating environmental and political challenges, preparing Samoa for a more diverse, tech-driven future.
• Future-focused partnerships – including a Memorandum of Understanding with the National University of Samoa.    

From brain drain to brain gain: transforming opportunities for Samoan families

For many young Samoans, the choice between pursuing a meaningful career and staying close to family has long been a challenge. Historically, graduates often faced limited local opportunities, pushing them to seek work overseas. But thanks to the partnership between WE Mana and the Australian Government, that story is changing.

Moananu Tyrone Malesaili Laurenson, General Manager of WE Mana, describes the impact with pride.

“By establishing itself in Samoa, WE Mana has provided meaningful employment as part of the digital economy to local graduates,” he explains. “We’re seeing young people coming straight out of the National University of Samoa and into a job, staying here in Samoa instead of leaving. It means that whole families have been touched by this as well.”

Tyrone calls this shift a “brain gain” – reversing the trend of talented young people leaving the islands. Through their work with WE Mana, graduates are now contributing to Samoa’s social and economic development while staying connected to their families, communities and churches – no longer needing to move overseas to build meaningful careers.

He says he feels blessed to work alongside these young graduates, who are “youthful, enthusiastic and committed.” This new generation of local professionals is helping to grow Samoa’s digital economy from within – bringing skills, confidence and long-term potential to communities that previously saw few high-skilled job prospects close to home.

View the full partnership impact story below or download here.