The European Employment Services (EURES) in Malta, within the Employment and Training Corporation, recently organised a seminar for local Personal and Social Development teachers.
The event aimed to promote EURES and the principle of worker mobility in Europe, as part of ongoing efforts by EURES and the ETC to promote its services with secondary schools.
Opening the seminar, ETC chief executive officer Sue Vella stressed the importance of the role of PSD teachers in equipping students with the vital personal and social skills necessary in today's labour market and particularly to take full advantage of the challenges and opportunities of working across cultures in other European countries.
The views of students on job mobility were revealed in a research study on job mobility trends of recent graduates, conducted by Albert Debono from the University of Malta.
The study, carried out among 3,000 University and MCAST students, shows that almost 53 per cent of students are aware of EURES while 3.4 per cent are already working abroad (with three per cent working in the EU).
Of those working abroad, 25 per cent are working in the educational field, while 10 per cent are working in the health sector, and another 10 per cent in IT; five per cent are working in the caring professions, in consultancy and in transport and communications. The preferred country for working abroad is the UK (19.6 per cent of respondents) followed by Ireland, Belgium, Italy and Austria.
PSD teachers were also addressed by Dr Agnes Bradier, from the European Commission, responsible for the EURES network. Dr Bradier referred to the importance of worker mobility in Europe both as a fundamental freedom and to the European economy. She said that over four million jobs are currently vacant in the EU, while the unemployment rate is at 7.9 per cent. Only two per cent of workers in the 27 member states are currently living and working in another member state.
Dr Bradier also made reference to a study carried out among 500 Maltese respondents. The UK and Ireland again are on top of the preferences of Maltese workers. She also spoke about the European Commission's Job Mobility Action Plan for 2007-2010, which aims to improve existing legislation and administration practices, to enhance the policy dimension of mobility, to reinforce the service provision of EURES and to foster awareness of the advantages of mobility.
The EURES portal, www.eures.europa.eu, promotes over 1.3 million vacancies and receives between 800,000 and one million hits a month. Over 300,000 people have submitted their CV on the portal and 11,500 employers are registered. The EURES network, spread in 31 countries, has over 700 qualified EURES career advisers.
EURES Malta can be contacted on freephone on 8007 6505 or by e-mail at eures.etc@gov.mt. The EURES office at the ETC in Ħal Far is open from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to noon.