Smart City vs other HR needs

In about three year's time when Smart City is in full swing, it will be creating about 10,000 new jobs of which about 4,000 need to filled by people with a tertiary education related to computer studies.

Currently, about 100 students join a computer studies degree course every year at the University, with another 50 students taking a computer studies course in combination with business studies. Another 150 students study computer studies at MCAST and nearly the same number in private institutions, bringing the total to about 450 students per year.

This means we need about 1,200 students following computer degree courses per year, that is, about 750 more than at present. Where are these additional 750 graduates per year going to come from without depleting other industries and pillars of our economy, such as health, finance and tourism?

The biggest threat to the success or otherwise of Smart City and, for that matter, the whole country's economic development, is not only the shortage of qualified ICT graduates but the potential deterioration of these services for which Malta has a good reputation. Certainly, we cannot put all our eggs in one basket.

The Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy (FEMA), which is the largest faculty on campus with about 2,000 students, is still not meeting the great demand for accountants in all areas. Finance is becoming a goose that lays golden eggs. Let us hope that we will not suffocate the goose. Developments in financial services can only continue if the FEMA retain the same number of students.

The health services are already facing a shortage of personnel, and with an aging population, the demand for more personnel in the caring professions will certainly increase to the tune of about 500 personnel per year for the next three years.

The Institute of Health Care is the University's largest Institute with 732 registered students, of which 540 are females whose working career is shorter due to maternity leave, among other factors. How are we going to ensure that the 192 male health professionals in the pipeline will be retained and that they will not shift in significant numbers to Smart City job attractions, which Smart City CEO Claudio Grech promises to be "quality jobs".

Some professionals in education and engineering also fear that Smart City job attractions could result in fewer students opting for tertiary education in their respective fields which could spell catastrophy for our education system and industrial development.

It is important for the University and other tertiary institutions to start working with actual numbers to assist our young and not so young to grasp these opportunities for quality jobs. But our education system planners need to start working with real numbers.

The first main statistic that needs to be put into the equation is the number of young people potentially available to take up tertiary education. This is about 4,500. One must also consider that the birth rate in Malta has been declining steadily over the past few years. There were 3,898 births in 2007 compared to 4,382 in 1999. On the other hand, the retiring age will increase to 65, allowing more to remain on the job market before retiring. Certainly jobs lost in the textile industry, ST Microelectronics and the Dockyard could be shifted to this area.

A commission should be set up to plan the country's human resources needs as a whole so that this will not be done in a fragmented way with each sector looking at its needs in isolation. The University should play an important part in such a commission.