The ETC at the forefront of IT

Each and every organisation in today's world must harness the power of IT if it wants to offer a quality service which successfully satisfies the needs of its clients.

The management of the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) recognised this 15 years ago when the corporation was created and constantly supported this strategy throughout the years. This decision was taken since the most vital business resource of the corporation is information.

The information provided for the ETC from external sources is transformed into actionable format for internal processing and outputted in a different format to recipients of information. The Corporation is actually about managing information. Because of this, the ETC built throughout the years a state-of-the-art information system which spans Malta, Gozo and beyond.

A proof of this is the Best Information Society Project Award which the corporation received during the first National Information Communication Technology Achievements Awards (NICTAA) 2005. The award, given by the Computer Society of Malta (CSM), recognises the effort and achievements of the corporation in the field of IT.

Some people may think that IT is yet another buzzword and everyone is just hopping on this technological bandwagon hoping to gain some advantage. This is not the case here. The corporation's electronic services are making a huge difference in the lives of its clients and this is reflecting well on the labour market.

When a person approaches the ETC for the first time, his/her personal details are captured and stored in the corporate information system. A registration card is issued and he/she is asked to start registering on a weekly basis.

There is no need to go Hal Far since the corporation has around 24 self-service biometric registration units installed in various localities.

This service is currently being used by around 8,000 clients on a weekly basis. The system is the first of its kind in Europe; in fact, there is currently no public employment service, which has such a set-up. Upon renewing the registration, the unit issues a chit to confirm the attendance.

Through this application, ETC employees can submit text messages to clients. From that point onwards, the status of the client is constantly monitored; a number of actions are taken to help make the person more employable and as a result help him/her find a suitable job.

Employment Advisers (EAs) are the people who help job seekers immensely. They achieve this by submitting clients to adequate courses, organising meetings to monitor the client's progress, sending clients on schemes and much more. An important part of their work is the profiling of clients whereby a detailed profile of the job seeker is constructed.

This profile is then used to match job seekers and adequate vacancies and vice-versa. These operations are all achieved at the touch of a button since the IS covers most of the fundamental operations of the corporation.

The training division on the other hand helps job seekers improve their skills (or acquire new ones) by organising short courses on a regular basis. The whole process of managing courses (ie organising rooms, co-ordinating time tables, ensuring tutors and rooms are not booked at the same time, notifying the clients of the commencement of a course via registration units and keeping track of absenteeism) is all managed by the core IS.

The training division is also responsible for the co-ordination of a number of schemes. One such scheme is the apprenticeships scheme whereby job seekers pursue an apprenticeship in a particular area. The IS enables the training division to manage this scheme and monitor the progress of apprenticeships in real time.

All the data gathered are stored in the central data warehouse. This repository contains information dating to decades before the ETC even opened, thus the amount of statistics which the Labour Market department can generate is unthinkable.

On a daily basis, a series of reports are run automatically based on these data. These reports gather statistical information which is then used to monitor the various operations of the corporation.

Apart from these, the system is also set up to send automatic updates to the ETC Website (www.etc.gov.mt). The corporation's Website provides a variety of e-services to both job seekers and employers. Job seekers have the facility to search the most recent local and European job vacancies; request alerts via SMS or e-mail whenever a new vacancy matching their preferences is advertised on the Website; submit their curriculum vitae, which can be accessed by employers; and view, apply and pay online for the courses offered by the corporation.

With regard to employers, they may use the Website to submit vacancies; search the curriculum vitae of the various job seekers; submit an engagement and termination form; and order ETC certificates.

The ETC is also an active participant of the European Employment Services (EURES) Project. EURES brings together the European Commission and the public employment services of the countries belonging to the European Economic Area.

The purpose of the EURES network is to provide services for the benefit of workers and employers as well as any citizen wishing to benefit from the principle of the free movement of persons.

The EURES portal (http://europa.eu. int/eures/) provides a central resource for the general European public. Among other functions one can find a large number of European vacancies. The IS automatically sends on a daily basis all the Maltese vacancies available.

As part of the project, the corporation also installed touch screen computers in its job centres. This is a relatively new and innovative idea intended to promote vacancies, especially to people who are not conversant with technology. The touch screen system installed was specifically designed for employment services (with special consideration for people with disability) and it is being used in various countries around the world (UK, Ireland, Australia, etc).

The system provides the facility to search for vacancies which are either local or European by simply touching the screen of the machine using one's finger. It also offers the option to print the details on a chit for the user to take home.

For the future the ETC has great prospects. The system is constantly being enhanced with new features. There is currently a project running in collaboration with the University of Malta to create an Artificial Intelligence system which will allow EAs to be more accurate when matching people and vacancies and vice-versa.

In the coming years, new touch screen systems will be installed in various locations, more mobile services will be offered to our clients and online courses are being planned.

In synthesis, the Labour Market Information System of the ETC is at the forefront of technological innovation. This is being done because the corporation has a social commitment towards its clients, especially those in the most disadvantaged groups and the correct usage of IT can really help make a difference in the these people's lives.

Dr Dingli is senior manager IT at the ETC