Left in the lurch

It has become the norm nowadays to talk of the critical situation of the Maltese economy with whoever you come across. Everybody seems to have become an expert on the subject, whether by profession or empirically.

While everybody is so ready to pass on his or her personal ideas about the situation, there seems however to be an important convergence of ideas among the main stakeholders and social partners. All seem to agree that the main problem lies with Malta's lack of competitiveness. Many stress the essential requirement - that of a significant restructuring process while many of the government exponents lay emphasis on the effects of globalisation, the high wages and working conditions together with an "unsustainable" welfare system as being the main obstruction to competitiveness in Malta.

When, on Saturday, February 14, the Malta Labour Party organised a meeting for social partners and NGOs, another obvious convergence seemed to emanate from the various interesting inputs of all those present. They nearly all dealt with the need for a proper education system and vocational education, which can actually provide our young citizens with the necessary skills that the demanding labour market today dictates. Most of those present insisted on the need of a flexible and highly skilled workforce as one of the fundamentals on which a restructuring process has to be founded.

Subsequently, during these deliberations it transpired that though the national curriculum has been prepared for nearly five years now, its implementation is still in its infancy. Unfortunately, the Nationalist government has also been dilly-dallying for far too long with the set up of the vocational educational system. A White Paper on vocational education, which was prepared by the previous Labour administration, was left in the lurch while the setting up of the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology was delayed for quite a number of years. However, even with the eventual setting up of this important institution, the requirement of providing other reformed vocational educational set-ups has not been satiated in order to replace those which had been discarded, such as the traditional trade schools, so as to include those youngsters who most unfortunately have gone through the whole educational system, up till the secondary level, without achieving any basic skills and, thus, are today jobless.

Another important set-up which the government negligently has left unattended is the Malta National Vocational and Professional Awards. A national council, set up about three years ago to prepare the proper structure for the necessary accreditation of the skills for experienced workers, was completely ignored by this government. In fact, after the resignation of the old council about a year ago, the government has failed to appoint a new one. It is such a pity to see that though this council had even completed even a business plan, which was presented to ministers Lawrence Gonzi and Louis Galea in December 2002 and had actually consulted foreign sources, its work was left completely in the lurch.

Why hasn't the government given its utmost attention and priority to this important aspect of our restructuring process? Why has the government slacked so much in the case of vocational education especially when one of the very last reports submitted by the Commission of the European Union about Malta's position stated very clearly that nine per cent of our gainfully occupied had no qualifications whatsoever?

Why all this lethargy from a government that had the sole responsibility of upgrading our workforce over these last 16 years? Is it possible that the government did not realise during all these years that it should ensure that our sole natural resource should be up to the highest standards so as to be in the best position to attract and encourage new alternative investment? Is it possible that the government has not realised that this was one essential way forward of generating the new productive jobs that are most needed?

It is a pity and a misfortune that so much time has been lost. However, the Labour opposition is not wasting time. We have already indulged in a process of updating our policies so as to provide Malta with a serious and reliable alternative government.

Ms Coleiro is the opposition's spokesman for social solidarity.