Leonardo, Socrates and Youth - the Malta experience

Ever since Malta applied for membership to the European Union in July 1990, it has been increasing its familiarisation of and participation in the three EU educational programmes: Leonardo da Vinci, Socrates and Youth.

In 1996, Malta was invited by the European Commission to set up its infrastructural organisation so that it could start participating in these programmes. However, late that year, these preparations had to be abruptly stopped because of the freezing of Malta's application to join the EU. Two years later, Malta's application for membership was reactivated, and five months later, in May 1999, Malta again resubmitted its application for participation in the three programmes.

By the end of 1999, Malta's request was approved and a package of financial aid from the EU to Malta was agreed upon. Malta was now able to participate fully in the programmes even though it was still a candidate country.

Government entrusted the responsibility for managing, promoting and monitoring of these programmes to the Ministry of Education, which set up the European Union Programmes Unit. Education Minister Louis Galea officially launched the EUPU on January 25, 2000.

It was then decided by the Ministry of Education that Malta would start participating in Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci in 2000 and in Youth in 2001. This decision was taken so as to give the Maltese staff as well as the potential beneficiaries enough time to absorb the needed knowledge and expertise to exploit all possible benefits out of these programmes.

Socrates was a programme intended to help all students and teachers, from kindergarten to university, in formal education, to widen and enrich their educational experience, while Leonardo da Vinci concentrated on vocational education offering training periods for students, teachers and workers in EU countries.

Youth was intended to offer aid and support in non-formal education to 15-20-year-olds. These three programmes, since last January, have been restructured into one programme called Lifelong Education Programme, thus reflecting more clearly the views of the EU as regards education, training and youth.

As already stated, Malta started participating in Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci in 2000. We started with Erasmus and Comenius Actions within Socrates, and Mobility Action within Leonardo. These actions were chosen as 'starters' because we realised that these would be easier to explain to teachers and students as they involved mainly visits by Maltese students and teachers in projects and visits to overseas partners.

An office was set up at University to work with University students to explain the benefits of this Action and also to manage the funds the EU gave to Malta for this Action. A similar office was set up at MCAST to promote and manage, together with EUPU, the Mobility Action within MCAST.

A few months later, an information office within EUPU was set up in the Sir Michael Angelo Refalo Complex in Gozo to promote the programmes in Gozo. The EUPU at the Ministry of Education concentrated, in the early months, on Comenius (Socrates) and Mobility Action (Leonardo da Vinci) and then expanded gradually to take in all Actions within the programmes.

High participation

From this small beginning (i.e. within seven years) we witnessed a continuous and extraordinary development in the participation rate of the Maltese. We optimised our participation and now, looking at the figures, they make Malta proud.

Between 2000 and 2005, 691 Maltese university students participated and benefited from Erasmus. All these students were given funds and the opportunity to spend a semester in an EU university. In the same six-year period, 202 university lecturers also benefited from Erasmus because, like the students, they were given financial aid and opportunity to spend time in anEU university. During the same period, 1,337 EU students participated in Erasmus at the University of Malta, thus enhancing the international profile of our University.

These are the raw results, but the full (academic, social and personal) benefits of the beneficiaries cannot be remotely quantified. Speaking of financial aid, the EU provided Malta with €1,987,298 for this purpose. Without this financial aid, this overseas posting for our University lecturers and students would simply have remained a dream.

Turning to Comenius, the results reflect the Erasmus success. During these six years a total of 126 primary and secondary school teachers benefited from participation in in-service courses in the EU member states, thanks to a grant of €86,666 from the EU. Within the same Comenius Actions, Maltese primary schools shared e1,557,540 over a six-year period to participate or lead projects with European schools. It is evident that our students derive immense benefits in their educational, personal and social development by participating in these programmes.

The Mobility Action within Leonardo da Vinci offers vocational education students, teachers and workers, funds for spending time gaining vocational experience in EU vocational education institutions and industry. Over the years, we have read of various tradesmen and professionals (from bus drivers to paramedics), as well as several MCAST and ITS students and teachers, who participated in this Action. In fact, between 2000-2006, they totalled 1,689 persons took part, supported by €2,023,145 from the EU.

Participation in the Youth programme started a year later (in 2001) but it was equally successful. A total of 2,474 youths aged 15 to 25 benefited from this programme since 2001, thanks to EU funding amounting to e2,310,641. Various local councils and voluntary youth organisations took part in this programme, both locally and abroad.

These are indeed highly successful results and reflect the commitment by all of us to participate and benefit fully from these programmes. Malta has accepted the opportunities offered by the EU and, perhaps in our natural way, we quickly learned how to exploit them and maximise the benefits. These joint projects, funded by and implemented by our schools and University, have proved to be very beneficial to all participants.

I have dealt mainly with the highlights of the programmes, but Malta fared equally well in other Actions within programmes like Arion, Grundtvig, Youth Pact, Euro Guidance, Europass and Language Assistants. Malta's participation in these Actions over the years benefited our education and youth community.

New programme

As happens in most projects, the EU assessed the whole three programmes over the last year, and has, from the beginning of this year, restructured the Leonardo and Socrates programmes into one called Lifelong Learning programme.

This new programme is simpler and easier to manage as well as being more cost-efficient and, yet, retained all the benefits offered by the three programmes. The new programme (also reflecting the main objectives of the former programmes) surely helps bring the EU closer to the people. It makes the EU a people's union.

Bringing all these figures together, Malta received a total of €10,573,323 for the implementation of these three programmes in a six-year period. This is a very substantial contribution by the EU for the enrichment of our education, training and youth provisions.

These funds provided opportunities for our students, teachers and youth for their academic and vocational development, as well as for their personal and social development. Obviously, our students and teachers are better prepared for their careers and personal life due to their participation in these programmes.

However, besides these funds the EU also contributed substantially, through ERDF and ESF, for the improvement of our educational infrastructure, especially at MCAST. Adding up all these benefits, one can truthfully say that Malta's accession to the EU has proved to be beneficial also in education, training and youth.

Mr Sammut is the former national co-ordinator of the European Union Programmes Unit of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Employment