"We cannot stop migration - and the time will come when we ourselves will go to Africa for short or long periods of time."

Dr Louis Galea, Minister of Education, Youth and Employment, said this in a keynote address to representatives of European workers' movements and adult education centres attending an AZAD seminar on vocational training, mobility and migration in Europe.

In his address, Dr Galea raised the questions: What are tomorrow's educational and training needs? How can a social labour market for a mobile Europe be created? Is there a missing link between human migration, mobility and employment? A respect for, and trained competence in dealing with cultural diversity is a key factor for Dr Galea - together with lifelong learning and "active participation in economic and social growth".

His audience was composed of delegates from Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Spain. The Maltese representatives included members of the workers' branch of the Nationalist Party, Solidarjetà Haddiema.

The three-day AZAD seminar was held at the Victoria Hotel last weekend. It addressed the theme, "New Thinking Tools and Communication Technologies - for better worker-participation and intercultural competence". Its first aim was to bring together experts on the experience of migration in various parts of Europe, so as to understand migration within a pan-European framework.

The second aim was to explore how problems of worker-participation that are related to migration and the economic features associated with it, may be addressed through vocational education and training, and through new thinking tools.

Dr Galea said the challenges had to be met by producing tomorrow's teachers and tomorrow's schools, today. Among the raft of measures that Malta was taking, he described the work of the Malta Qualifications Council (to oversee the certification and European recognition of qualifications), MCAST, ETC and other public and private training providers, which could help bridge the gap between the set of skills that migrants have and the needs of the European economies.

The seminar delegates were also addressed by members of staff at the Employment and Training Corporation - Albert Ellul on employment services, Sandra Azzopardi on thinking skills for clients and staff, and Joe Cutajar on training - and by Joe Woods of the Edward de Bono Foundation. Ranier Fsadni, chairman of AZAD, gave a talk on culture and mobility in Europe from an anthropological perspective. The seminar also included three panel discussions on migration in the Mediterranean, in Germany and the Baltic, and in Central and Eastern Europe respectively. The topic of migration and Malta was addressed by Nationalist MP David Agius, vice-president of the European Union Christian-Democrat Workers organisation.

The seminar was supported by the European Centre for Workers' Questions (EZA) and the European Commission.

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