Aiming for a smooth transition from secondary education to MCAST

Malta has many strong traditions which form the very foundations of our nation. We have a cultural heritage that is envied by many and distinctively makes us proud Maltese.

We have a heritage that is rich in its diversity and needs to be preserved at all costs. Malta moves forward in a world made up of diverse nations which also boast of strong traditions and rich cultural heritage. Many of these have made the leap to a knowledge-based economy. This is what we must do as well. However, to be forward-looking doesn't mean one has to abandon the past. But, it does mean we need to move forward with the times.

St John's Co-Cathedral is a testament to our rich cultural heritage and is also a living testament and monument to the knowledge, skills and craftsmanship that Malta boasted in the past.

Such knowledge, skills and craftsmanship must not be forgotten as they form part of the attraction that enables our modern knowledge-based tourist industry to both develop and flourish.

People with knowledge, competences and skills

Information technology, Web browsers, added value, customer focus, client driven, market forces, and the Malta brand are all modern terminologies used in the development of this important economic sector. However, it is not just the terminology, it is more the people with the knowledge, skills and competences required to drive this and other sectors forward.

The challenge for MCAST and other vocational education and training providers is to ensure the knowledge, skills and competencies to both promote and preserve our cultural heritage.

At the same time, these institutions must continue to provide the traditional knowledge and skills as well as the new competences that will enable a knowledge-based economy to develop and flourish.

MCAST promoting traditional trades

MCAST provides courses in masonry heritage skills to ensure that our heritage is preserved, using a mix of traditional methods and modern technological techniques and processes for future generations to be able to behold our rich cultural past.

Courses in heating, ventilation and air conditioning as well as building services will ensure that we have the knowledge and skills to manufacture and to service the many new technologies and processes now being used in modern building technologies and materials on our islands.

MCAST is adopting this approach and philosophy in all of its nine institutes and at the Gozo Centre. This approach is also happening at all levels, from foundation level (level one) to Higher National Diploma level (level four).

MCAST is thus catering for all those students who, prior to the setting up of the college, would have attended and followed courses at various trade schools. The phasing out of trade schools in Malta was a consultative and authoritative decision and clearly indicated a major move from a narrow prescriptive instruction to a more modern and holistic approach to vocational education and training.

A major step forward

MCAST offers a definite improvement and a major step forward regarding what was previously offered. At MCAST, a broader range of vocational skills are available for students and, as one would expect, the facilities and equipment are vastly improved. 

Another important point is that MCAST has an inclusive vocational educational and training policy, which means one college for all students.

Students who do not have a high-level school certificate are not marginalised; they are treated as they should be - as MCAST students - and they have the opportunity to progress to higher levels within MCAST, as do all other MCAST students. 

While in the past trade schools provided an important supply of skills to the labour market, MCAST is effectively responding to a changing labour market that requires flexible skills, knowledge, innovation and the holistic development of the young person.  

One of the important roles for MCAST is to be at the heart of industry, business and commerce and to be the community college that will promote and facilitate lifelong learning.

MCAST can also play a very important role in providing the bridge with 14- to 16-year-olds relating to vocational education and training, as is the case in many other European countries.

Another positive development was the introduction of technology education into the National Curriculum in secondary schools to ensure that all secondary school pupils have exposure to a broad range of technology. This approach is forward-looking and will ensure that we move forward with the times.

As previously mentioned, MCAST can and should work with secondary schools to maximise the potential of our youngsters. However, MCAST must not become a secondary education institution - this would be a step backwards and would be like trying to put new wine into old skins.

MCAST is committed to providing opportunity for all and improving the vocational experience of all those placed within the college's care and trust. At MCAST we strive to build on the strengths of the past and develop a vocational experience that will meet the expectations of students, parents, employers and our country as well as adopting a holistic approach to the development of our students.

MCAST must be a forward-looking organisation that understands our roots and traditions and that will work hand in hand with industry and other stakeholders to provide the knowledge and skills for a forward-looking knowledge-based economy.

Design and technology in secondary schools

As a result of years of hard work put in by Lawrence Zammit, outgoing director, Department of Technology in Education, at the Education Division, and his hard-working team who had been developing and supporting the teaching of design and technology (this as a subject is being introduced as a SEC qualification, the first vocationally oriented subject to be included in the MATSEC list by the board).

Mr Zammit is the same officer who, again together with a dedicated team, had phased in IT in the state primary and secondary schools. Hence, as Mr Zammit himself said, "Students studying design and technology will now be able to obtain a national certification that recognises their knowledge and skills in this very important area".

Mr Zammit had also been head of the Fellenberg School for Industrial Electronics, the forerunner of the current MCAST Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineering.

The Trade Schools Review Working Group Report (1999)1 had proposed: "Technology education has to be phased out of the present trade schools and phased into all secondary schools." In fact, state-of-the-art laboratories continue to be set up in secondary schools and Junior Lyceums.

All design and technology teachers have been given extensive training in preparation for the introduction of this subject in secondary schools. The design and technology syllabus prepares students to actively participate in today's fast-changing technological environment and to react and adapt to new challenges in their early steps into a world of lifelong learning.

Students are experiencing a distinctive creative process that combines intellectual abilities with practical skills through purposeful activities. Through design and technology, Mr Zammit believes, students have the opportunity of developing their design and production capabilities in combination with the knowledge and understanding of aesthetic, economic, moral, social and technical aspects involved, while integrating a range of communication devices, such as verbal, graphical and modelling skills, as well as the skills required to work effectively as part of a team. CAD/CAM embedded in the design and technology syllabus should reflect in schools what is happening in industry.

Design and technology contribute to a better understanding of other secondary education subjects, such as science, mathematics, art, IT and business studies, giving the opportunity of cross-curricular collaboration between the subject teachers involved.

Teachers are expected to engage in new pedagogical processes and apply constructivist teaching methodologies. The massive work carried out by Mr Zammit and his team is continuing to develop through the dedication and enthusiasm of Charles Spiteri and his team.

In fact, detailed plans for the expansion of design and technology in secondary education are being implemented. Within the next few years all secondary schools will be fully equipped with design and technology laboratories.

Moreover, it is hoped that design and technology will be introduced as a core subject that is ICT driven. It is hoped that technology in primary and secondary schools will be integrated as one continuous subject.

This approach is satisfying Objective 12 of the National Framework Curriculum, which provides for "greater awareness of the role of science and technology in everyday life" with regards to knowledge/information, skills and attitudes.

Design and technology and MCAST

Obviously, these major developments at primary and secondary levels of education are creating a growing major impact on MCAST. They lay a solid foundation for the work being carried out at MCAST that should eventually make the provision of foundation courses at the college as unnecessary for the vast majority of our students. MCAST would be concentrating more of its resources and energies towards the higher levels of vocational education and training (VET).

Design and technology at primary and secondary levels should make VET more attractive and stimulating while continuing to raise the status, validity and value of VET as a major contributor towards the economic development of the islands as well as a very worthwhile basis for a personal career. VET must be set within the context of lifelong learning since technology in its various aspects is continuously changing and developing.

General academic education and vocational education and training should not be considered as two distinct fields of education. They are actually complementary and supplementary to each other.

In fact, ideally, every person should grow not only aware of both aspects of what should be considered as the same field, but possibly as a complete person with knowledge and experience of both as interdependent fields.

In reality, MCAST has never excluded the all important general education elements in its curricula, courses, programmes and syllabi. The college has retained a number of courses that are more general academic education rather than purely vocational education and training.

Having students from different areas of knowledge and practice studying and living together makes the MCAST experience more rewarding and healthy.

1. The Working Group was set up by the Minister of Education in 1999 and it was composed of Messrs Emmanuel Zahra, Paul A. Attard, Philip Bonanno, Joseph Cutajar, Stephen Debono, Carmen Mangion, James Pearsall and David Purchase.

Mr Attard is president of the Board of Governors of MCAST and Mr Edwards is principal/CEO.