Ask any student at MCAST or University why he or she is on a course and in most cases the answer is the same: To obtain a certificate or degree with which to get a job. The general perception is that academic qualifications guarantee jobs, that examinations are the key to future employment. But are these what really young people need?
The importance of training and skills for what is known as the 'knowledge economy' is constantly stressed. This emphasis echoes the European Council's Lisbon proposal in March 2000 that "every citizen must be equipped with the skills needed to live and work in this new information society".
Skills acquired through higher education, particularly skills in the new information and communication technologies, enhance the employability of Maltese young people as they face the challenges of globalisation and have to compete in what are called 'talent wars'.
The shift from a model of education based on the acquisition of facts and information to one that gives importance to developing skills and competences is a step forward. However, what do we understand by 'skills'.
They are commonly understood as those abilities that can be measured by summative examinations, and consequently as something which can be formally certified. These academically-related abilities, attainment and qualifications are then exchanged for future employment. This is the rather limited understanding of 'skills' which normally prevails in an attainment-driven system of education.
In a research study by Phillip Brown and Anthony Hesketh on middle-class graduates published in The Management of Talent: Employ-ability and Jobs in the Knowledge Economy, Brown and Hesketh claim that emphasis on high-skilled training for high-waged jobs in today's labour market is exaggerated. They argue that besides training and qualifications in skills for knowledge-based jobs, similar training and qualifications in personal and social skills are becoming correspondingly important.
In other words, the meritocratic approach to employment prospects based on qualifications in academic training and skills needs to be complemented by social and civic competences that enhance candidates' personality. They argue that employers value a prospective employee's 'personal capital' including high self-confidence, ability to interact with others, socially desirable behaviour, and ability to use language in a way that establishes the right kind of relationships with customers and partners at work.
Academic skills, class or cultural background are no longer enough for today's labour market. Employers are also searching for entrepreneurial qualities needed for leadership and management roles. The new 'managerial charisma' in those seeking employment has to be shown alongside academic and vocational skills.
Concretely, this means that students have to work for personal and social competences like real creative thinking, decision-making, innovation and designing, drive and determination, an openness to a search for perspectives rather than information, coupled with a sense of social responsibility and autonomy.
According to Brown and Hesketh, "The personal capital of applicants becomes increasingly important in the bare-knuckle struggle for employment in the most sought-after knowledge economy jobs...(while) issues of...social fit...have become more, not less, important in the new era."
David Hargreaves is critical of school systems that lays stress on personal achievements in examinations which, besides denying the abilities of failing students, plays down responsibilities towards groups and society. A fast growing area of interest in sociological studies of work processes is the constructive use of emotions. Sharon Bolton uses terms such as 'emotion work' or 'emotional labour' and McGeachy speaks of 'spiritual intelligence' being applied to work processes.
What these basically entail is the greater use of employees' self-confidence, curiosity, relatedness, self-control and the capacity to communicate and co-operate. McGeachy's research in work organisations which invest on these qualities in their employees has found that both the ethos of the organisation, the efficiency of workers and productivity have improved. Companies today can no longer compete only on the basis of tangible skills; they must also provide quality service. And this is assured by less emphasis on formally skilled workers and increasing demand for workers who can deal effectively with customers by proving more obviously they have the right interpersonal abilities. It is with this added value of personal qualities that students, as potential employees, have to market themselves.
Evidence suggests that the philosophy guiding the Maltese educational system is generally following the directions indicated by Brown and Hesketh and similar studies. Targeting the stimulation of analytical, critical and creative thinking while nurturing the sense of commitment, the National Curriculum promotes the importance of personal characteristics centred on the development of values and attitudes relevant to what is being expected by employment opportunities today.
The thrust on the importance of education in personal and social skills, clearly evident in the amended Education Act, is spelled out more clearly in the Government-MUT Agreement. This provides for engagement of qualified personnel including psychologists, counsellors, career advisers, social workers and youth workers to help develop students' inner potentials and personal characteristics and competences.
Educational programmes of study, such as social studies and personal and social education at the primary and secondary level, as well as sociology and psychology at tertiary level, give concrete meaning to the provisions in these official policy documents. Curricular experiences in citizenship and democracy education also lend themselves well to equip students with those social skills which empower them with 'personal capital' and a 'management charisma' for a future employment.
One only hopes that the new National Curriculum Framework, while looking ahead at the new challenges of a changing world order and inspiring itself by "the potential and the opportunities new technologies offer" as former Education Minister Louis Galea was quoted as saying - will look back and build on what has been achieved so far in the areas of ethical, social and emotional education which are high on the agenda of a knowledge economy today.
The route in this direction should not be so difficult when viewed in the broad context of the Maltese National Qualifications Framework (NQF) for Lifelong Learning that stresses the knowledge, skills and attitudes students need to show to prove that they have 'social and civic competences' supported by a high degree of 'initiative and entrepreneurship' as another key competence.
Like the Brown and Hesketh study, the thinking in the NQF is that, for a successful job or career, students today have to complement their academic intelligence with social and emotional intelligence.
The relevance and importance of this complementary strategy have recently been highlighted by the Degreeplus initiative by the University of Malta and the new vision of the theoretical and practical aspects of the courses at MCAST. In the words of the newly-appointed MCAST principal Maurice Grech, these aspects should lead students to develop "intra-personal and interpersonal skills, ... group skills, healthy living and the meaning of voluntary work".