Qualifications and jobs

The Ministry of Education last month launched the national framework for qualifications. This framework places the various qualifications that can be achieved in Malta on eight levels. Four documents were presented which will be discussed in the coming months to put this framework into practice.

It is a framework of which the labour market has been in dire need, as it provides for greater labour mobility and greater clarity in understanding the capabilities of employees. In effect this is yet another step of a process started more than a decade ago in the recognition of skills and capabilities that go beyond formal academic achievement.

Credit goes to the Minister of Education for the achievement of this milestone. The foundation stone had been laid when President Emeritus Ugo Mifsud Bonnici was responsible for education and human resources. Work continued under his successor, Michael Falzon, and Minister Louis Galea gave the matter the big push it deserved in the last nine years. Consultations that led to the publication of the national framework documents published last month started only last November.

However, a number of considerations need to be made as the recognition of skills that are not academic in nature should go beyond formal processes within the Ministry of Education and Employment and must permeate in the rest of society and, in particular, the economy. For starters, the concept of recognising officially vocational qualifications and work-based skills is in effect strongly linked with the reforms the Ministry of Education wishes to introduce in the system of compulsory education, such as the introduction of formative assessments of students. The national framework for qualifications provides in a way for a formative assessment of an employee's throughout his or her working life.

The recognition of skills obtained at the work place, or outside the formal education system, encourages even further the process of life-long education, which is now a must in today's labour market. The only way we can address the periodic shortages of skills in the labour market or the infrequent surges in unemployment is through life long training and education. The incentive which employees have to update their skills and capabilities is the formal recognition on the part of the state to this updating process, as such formal recognition implies greater employability and even better earnings.

Another consideration to make is the role of the regulatory authorities in the various sectors, such as financial services, aviation, maritime transport and communications. Such regulatory authorities can no longer insist on persons having university degrees when undertaking certain work, when another path may well be available. The same applies to the University of Malta. It needs to be more open to persons who may not have a matriculation certificate to their credit, but may well have a vocational qualification, which in the world of work is worth much more than the matriculation certificate. Universities abroad accept such vocational qualifications as satisfying entry requirements; so why not in Malta as well?

Let us take a very topical example. We had laid the foundation stone of the new hangar being built by Lufthansa Technik to enable them to expand their operations in Malta. The path to becoming an aircraft engineer (yes, such persons are called aircraft engineers worldwide, even if they do not possess the locally awarded engineer's warrant) is a mixture of work- based training and educational courses. We already have a number of them in Malta, having been trained at Air Malta. Some have been to university, but it was not a pre-requisite to obtain such an internationally recognised qualification.

Another example is accounting technicians. The Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology has started to offer a course of studies that leads to this vocational qualification. It is accepted that such persons may never be in a position to obtain the certificate to practice auditing, but, through continuous education programmes offered by the Malta Institute of Accountants and appropriate management training, should be in a position to take up a financial controller's job.

I believe that one needs qualifications to be able to do most jobs. However, this does not mean that persons need to have academic qualifications. Certified skills and vocational qualifications are just as good in a number of occupations. The national qualifications framework should facilitate such certification and gives credence to the statement that it is never too late to learn.