The Youth Section of the Employment Services Division of the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) offers a wide array of services catering specifically for young job seekers aged 16 to 24 since most new entrants to the labour market are young people.
These services aim to enhance young people's employability and human capital development and facilitate their entry into paid employment through advice and guidance, job search assistance, placements, skills enhancement, work experience, referrals for further training and provision of information to young registrants and secondary school students.
Services for young job seekers
When young job seekers first register with ETC they are called to attend a preliminary interview. The primary aim of this interview is to:
¤ identify client's skills
¤ identify client's occupational preferences
¤ collect data including personal details, qualifications and previous work experience including participation in voluntary organisations.
The profiling interview enables ETC employment advisers to form a first impression of the client. Information about the ETC job centres, training courses, initiatives and programmes and other general services is also given to young job seekers.
When a young person is unemployed for three months, he/she is called for an in-depth interview. The profiling interview is designed to record in-depth information about job seekers registering with ETC. The information gathered during this interview includes the client's:
¤ personal details
¤ skills
¤ level of education
¤ work experience
¤ employment challenges
¤ training needs.
During this interview, the employment adviser offers job seekers guidance so they may find the right job matching their skills, qualities and qualifications; refers them to courses to increase their employability and encourages them to participate in relevant ETC initiatives and programmes. Following the profiling interview, young registrants are offered employment initiatives.
Initiatives
The Youth Start Initiative is directed at new entrants to the labour market and aims to provide early intervention to facilitate young people's movement into the labour market as soon as possible and to ensure they do not become long-term unemployed.
The Youth Start Initiative comprises the Job Search Plan, Motivation Course (handled by the Training Services Division of the ETC) and the Job Club.
The Job Search Plan is an initiative whereby the client has to attend a job centre once a week for a period of three months. Jobs taken are recorded on the Job Plan Card, which is monitored every month by the employment adviser.
Currently there are five ongoing Job Clubs in Cottonera, Zabbar, Zejtun, Zurrieq and Valletta, run by a Job Club facilitator in each locality. As of next month two new Job Clubs will be launched in Birkirkara and Qormi.
The Job Club is a six-week (four hours a week) programme for young job seekers. Through the process of informal training, the programme empowers participants with soft skills and job-searching skills. Prior to the commencement of each Job Club a one-to-one interview is held with each participant, after which a seminar is held for group members to help them get to know one another and initiate group bonding.
Through the collaborative effort of the Job Club facilitators, a new manual has recently been compiled which builds upon the previous manual and introduces new themes relevant to the job market as well as skills required by employers. The manual primarily aims to serve as a guideline for the Job Club facilitators. The sessions on soft skills include:
¤ self-assessment inventory exercise
¤ self management skills
¤ lifelong learning
¤ creativity
¤ presentation and public speaking skills
¤ leadership and teamwork building skills
¤ employee rights and trade union membership.
Job-searching sessions include:
¤ Job leads
¤ researching employers/making job inventories
¤ CV preparation
¤ application letter and thank you letter preparation
¤ telephone skills
¤ interviewing skills
¤ Speculative visits to employers.
Participants are also taken to two workplace orientation visits. This experience helps them get a glimpse of the working world, meet employers, hear their expectations and ask questions. Several employers have accepted to receive Job Club participants for orientation visits. Employers wishing to participate are asked to contact the Youth Section of the Employment Services Division of the ETC.
All Job Club participants who are still unemployed at the end of the Job Club are presented with a certificate of attendance. A small cash voucher is also given to the most motivated job seeker.
Other schemes
Often school leavers undergoing job interviews tend to be disadvantaged due to lack of job experience. They may also be unaware of employers' expectations or what the job entails. In view of this, the Youth Section introduced the Job Experience Scheme (JES).
The main purpose is to help new labour market entrants gain experience, self-confidence and self-esteem and prevent long-term unemployment. Registrants will undergo a combination of in-house training and work experience with an employer/organisation. The scheme aims to improve employability and eventually integrate youths in the labour market.
JES is offered to registered youths aged 16 and over with no work experience and who have successfully completed the Job Start Youth Initiative and are still unemployed. However, other clients deemed as disadvantaged who have not completed any other initiative can also be offered this scheme.
Placements are for a maximum of 13 consecutive weeks based on a 20-hour week (four hours a day). JES participants are exempted from attending registration at their respective area office.
Public and private organisations, including NGOs, are eligible to participate. Youth Section Employment Advisors are responsible for finding sponsors. A sponsor's role includes:
¤ providing 20 hours work per week per person for up to 13 weeks
¤ taking full responsibility of the management and administration of work provided
¤ ensuring that the jes participant has the necessary equipment and adequate indoor facilities according to the standards available to full-time workers in similar employment
¤ complying with the terms and conditions as stipulated in the signed agreement with ETC
¤ ensuring that health and safety standards are maintained
¤ ensuring that the workplace's insurance also covers the young client.
Participation in the JES helps young clients gain valuable work experience and find their way into the labour market, thus replacing the vicious circle of "no job no experience, no experience no job".
The JES experience is fully successful if the company/organisation offers the young participant a full-time job, however, the employer is not obliged to make such an offer.
The Employment and Training Placement Scheme (ETPS) is offered to persons who have been registered for more than one year. Its main objectives are:
¤ to assist employers in providing the necessary training to newly recruited persons at the start of their probationary period
¤ to provide the opportunity for new employees to upgrade their skills or acquire new skills relevant to current labour market needs.
The rationale underpinning this scheme is to provide hands-on training in the skills required as well as facilitate and enable the new employee to reintegrate in the labour market.
The ETC subsidises 50 per cent of the minimum wage during the stipulated training period paid by private employees who recruit eligible registered unemployed persons requiring training.
The programme is developed by an ETC training executive and the employer. It is designed within two weeks of the application's approval, based on the work the client will be performing.
Any company or employer wishing to utilise this scheme is asked to fill in a Vacancy Profile Form for the ETC to identify clients eligible for employment under the ETPS conditions in the required callings.
The employer then interviews and selects the right candidate and forwards the name of the employee to the placement officer. The training executive will then meet the employer to determine the knowledge and skills required to perform the job and will draw up a training programme within five working days.
Once the programme is developed and agreed upon, the duration period for the training is defined by the ETC and a contract binding all parties according to the prescribed conditions is signed.
The client is employed as a full-timer on an indefinite contract by the employer under work conditions regulated by the Employment and Industrial Relations Act (EIRA). The training executive will monitor the client during this period.
The Voluntary Work Group is an initiative to help young job seekers gain valuable work experience by participating in voluntary work with local NGOs. The Youth Section firmly believes that such an experience helps increase a young person's motivation, fosters participation in civil society and enables youths to acquire new skills and competences which can later be used for paid employment.
Work experience - whether paid or unpaid - is seen as an increasingly important indication of motivation and level of participation in society. Both are extremely valid. Young people are thus encouraged to continue seeking employment while participating in voluntary work and list any skills gained in their CV profiles.
The Employment Services Division has organised two Motivational Seminars for young job seekers classified as long-term unemployed. The two day live-in seminar held last year aimed to increase young people's self-esteem and confidence, which typically deteriorate during the job seeking process.
After the seminar most participants found employment. Last March another two-day motivation seminar was organised for a group of youth registered as unemployed for over three years. This year's seminar was aimed at exploring participants' skills and potential and using these to increase motivation and combat difficulties which they face while job-searching.
The seminar programme animators held various interactive exercises to help participants identify their skills, potential and needs. The youth employment advisers implemented a Personal Action Plan for each participant, which they are currently following up. A mentor has also been assigned to each participant to facilitate reintegration in the labour market.
Last year a group of 13 young registered unemployed persons were selected to participate in a project financed by the EU's Leondardo da Vinci Programme in collaboration with the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA). Through this placement programme, participants underwent on-the-job training in the hospitality industry in Ireland.
Prior to their overseas placement participants were given an induction tailor-made English literacy course with emphasis on catering terminology to prepare them for the work placement as well as on-the-job training in Malta. Most of the participants have found jobs in the local hospitality industry.
One of the main tasks of the ETC is to act as a public employment service. Placement activities are thus the core business. In view of this, ongoing job matching is made by submitting clients for job interviews according to the criteria required by employers.
The ETC believes that training is part of the lifelong learning process that has become even more important in today's changing labour market where one needs to constantly upgrade one's skills. Registrants are thus referred to attend a number of short (non-trade) training courses available for all client groups, including unemployed youth.
Job centres and services
Currently there are four ETC job centres operating in Valletta, Mosta, Vittoriosa and Victoria, Gozo. These centres provide clients with localized access to key services offered by ETC.
Services for employers:
¤ free promotion of job vacancies
¤ information regarding employment and training schemes that may include financial assistance
¤ use of premises and aid for the organisation of 'open days' and 'recruitment exercises'
¤ help in filling out engagement or termination of employment forms
¤ list of employees working in particular company
¤ through telephone or fax, details of every job vacancy with a company can be received
Services for job seekers, including youth:
¤ job search assistance on how to find a suitable job
¤ information regarding documents needed to register for work
¤ listing of current job vacancies and information about employers wanting to recruit employees
¤ use of the internet and email service for those looking for part-time work on www.etc.org.mt
Services for persons already working:
¤ registration of persons on the Part 3 employment register for those already employed but would like to find a better job or alternative employment
¤ information on training services offered by other organisations/companies
¤ use of Internet and e-mail service for those looking for part-time work on www.etc.org.mt
Persons seeking alternative employment and students seeking temporary employment may register on the Part 3 Register. Those seeking alternative employment must be in full or part time employment. Students looking for temporary employment and attending a full-time or a part-time course may also register on Part 3.
To register, visit the registration office, ETC, Hal Far or one of the job centres. Alternatively e-mail: records@etc.org.mt.
Employers are welcome to use job centres to organise open days or job fairs promoting particular occupations. Last year a series of skill-specific employment drives were organised through Open Days at job centres. These Open Days were organised for the carpentry, housekeeping and cleaning, construction and service trades. Other area-specific activities have also been organised such as the Open Day for Cottonera Youth.
Other services
Free job searching, a service offered to job seekers looking for full or part-time employment. The freephone vacancies line 8007-6500 is a personalised service which facilitates access to the latest job vacancies submitted by employers to the ETC. This service complements the successful Web-based vacancies page: www.etc.org.mt.
Daily job vacancies advertised in local newspapers are disseminated free of charge by e-mail by the ETC. The following information is provided through this service:
¤ name of employer submitting job advertisement
¤ job title
¤ whether the post is on a full-time or part-time basis
¤ number of vacancies for the post/s advertised
¤ contact person's address, telephone or mobile nubmer or e-mail
¤ source of advert
For further information contact Mr Paul Aquilina on 2220-1233 or e-mail: paula@etc.org.mt.
Guidance and information
During the scholastic year, personnel from the Youth Section visit the Guidance Unit in Floriana and give a session (allotted to the ETC) on soft skills to Form V students attending local secondary schools.
Periodical school visits (on demand) are also made by representatives from the Youth Section. When asked, ETC personnel participate in school fairs. Interested schools should contact the Youth Section of the Employment Services Division.
Information sessions on several economic sectors are periodically held at the ETC Head Office Conference Hall. A recent session on the tourism industry was held for young unemployed job seekers.
Future plans
Besides the various services described above, the Youth Section of the Employment Services Division plans to provide the following initiatives:
¤ a one-day job-search seminar for young registrants after their first week of registration
¤ introduction of more Job Clubs
¤ motivation seminars for long-term unemployed youths
¤ participation in the Youth Programme of the EU Programmes Unit (EUPU). This programme enables young people to actively participate in local or overseas based projects and helps them develop their potential and acquire skills and knowledge through informal educational means.
For further information on any of the above services contact the Employment Services Division - Youth Section on 2220-1208, 2220-1209, 2220-1210 or e-mail: youths@etc.org.mt.
Mr Scerri is acting senior manager, Employment Services Division, ETC