730 work placements

During a
seminar addressed by the Hon Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, the Hon Minister for
Education and Employment Evarist Bartolo and Clyde Caruana, Chair of the Active
Labour Market Policy Counseling and Action Committee, it was announced that 730
placements have been secured through the collaboration of 83 enterprises.

These
enterprises come from a variety of sectors including electronic, manufacturing,
igaming, financial services and retail. The majority of these placements
require a level 4 qualification and some of them require a level 3
qualification but very few require a low level of skills. This goes to show that
there is a great demand for skilled workers in the private sector.

The
Minister thanked many times all those present for the support they are giving
both as business man and as social partners as he said without them this could
not be possible. He continued saying that the government intended to continue
working close to social partners and the private sector to make these
initiatives a success. In fact it was mentioned that in Budget 2014 Government
not only introduced incentives for the unemployed, apprentices, etc.. but also
for the employers that opened their business to they.

The new
schemes will help address our county's challenges of high percentage of low
skilled individuals and high percentage of early school leavers. It was
mentioned that only 44.5% of our 5th formers obtain the 5 sec exams and 25%
don't obtain any kind of examination. Government has also started working with
the inactive youths that have not yet completed their secondary education but
were not attending school to offer them an alternative education and training
option. Out of these 353, 200 have been included  in this new programme.

The
speakers also spoke of teaching work ethics at school and teaching them that
every employment can be a career. They also spoke not only of an employability
index but also checking courses against an employability audit.

GRTU
acknowledged the fact that the skills mismatch between education and employment
is large and statistics show that this gap we have been feeling on the ground
is indeed present and hindering our enterprises. GRTU also welcomed
Government's approach in working closely with stakeholders which if maintained
will lead to a successful outcome for all. GRTU also reiterated its commitment
to this project and its readiness to collaborate for the benefit of our
members.