MCAST to pilot first vocational degree in 2007

The Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) is planning to start offering a vocationally related first degree by next year. The areas being actively considered are Information and Communication Technology, business and commerce, art and design, and the electrical and electronics engineering.

MCAST principal and chief executive officer Frank Edwards explained that the college already offers a number of programmes leading to a Higher National Diploma (HND), which is generally considered as equivalent to the first two years of a related first degree.

Mr Edwards said: "The next natural progression from an HND would be a degree within a vocationally relevant area. The degree pilot is a 'top-up' to give the current courses MCAST is offering the status of a first degree. It is not a departure from what we are currently delivering but an extension of what we're doing... It is a pilot development in the areas we have already successfully reached, and not a process of trial and error."

The MCAST has submitted the project under the 2007-2013 European funding mechanism and the college is confident that it will receive local approval shortly. The top up degree is planned to be launched in 2007.

Mr Edwards said: "The indications we have at the moment are that what we have applied for is appropriate and therefore we think it will be looked upon favourably. We're confident we have done our homework well, and although nationally this is a significant step for vocational education, it is an important but incremental step for MCAST."

With regard to the provision of lecturers, he said: "We have established links with a number of higher education institutions, as well as the University of Malta. Our aim is that within a two-year period we would have had the staff development, and mastered the quality assurance systems."

He said the idea of working with other people is to have the knowledge transfer, support and backing of the other organisations.

Paul A. Attard, president of the college's board of governors, said that MCAST was already establishing very good working relations with the University of Malta.

Mr Edwards said: "The aim is to ensure that we have the complete delivery framework and capability in place and the appropriate and effective staff development programmes clearly established, that is, people with higher level knowledge and skills...

"That knowledge can be gained from institutions that we would enter into an agreement with, and that could obviously include the University of Malta, because we know that we can benefit from their quality assurance frameworks."

He emphasised: "We do not want to duplicate any already available resources but we intend to make the best of them. MCAST's next step is to be able to develop those vocationally- related degree programmes and the quality assurance around them, so that we have the confidence of the market, employers and the public we're serving and also to have the recognition within an international context."

Mr Edwards also said that when the college was set up in 2001, it started with 1,640 students and the number has increased year on year.

"We have close to 4,000 full-time students this year, without including the approximately 3,000 part-time students, besides hundreds of students following ESF adult courses."

Mr Attard confirmed: "Most of the qualifications obtained at MCAST are the very same that you would obtain in the United Kingdom, so we are confident with our benchmarking."

"Also, during the last few years we had some 100 lecturing staff visiting different European countries, 171 students visiting European countries, and 51 apprentices related to entrepreneurship that are involved in a European mobility project.

"This has given us all a good understanding of what is actually happening in other European institutions. That is why we are very confident about the vocational education and training and the programmes we deliver," Mr Edwards concluded.