Editorial

While the realities of the economic recession are being felt, it is critically important to concentrate on investing in the country's future prosperity by addressing its weaknesses. Three significant educational initiatives that will surly help to promote future economic growth.

The Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology has announced two schemes aimed at improving vocational training in Malta.

The first relates to the upgrading of standards for the aviation maintenance qualifications offered by the college. Besides enhancing the quality of this very specialised training, the initiative will address the skills mismatch that exists in this service industry.

The more recent initiative announced by the principal of Mcast is the introduction of graduate and post-graduate qualifications in professional development in vocational education.

The third initiative, by the Social Policy Ministry, will concentrate on providing 200 courses for an estimated 21,000 trainees in Malta and Gozo over the coming three years. These courses, which will be managed by the Employment Training Corporation, are aimed at providing on-the-job and off-the-job training in areas of labour market demand.

As more people may lose their jobs because of business restructuring, it is crucial that such individuals remain on the dole for the shortest time possible and are eased quickly into new employment. The initiatives mentioned above should help to make this transition much easier and less traumatic for those affected by the consequence of inevitable changes.

These educational initiatives should not cost the taxpayers much because they will be mostly financed by the European Social Fund. It is up to the managers of the projects to ensure the country gets the best value-for-money from the schemes.

Of course, such initiatives on their own are not enough to claim that the educational system is up to scratch to serve the country and the economic challenges it faces. Perhaps one needs to follow the advice of the American education expert Robert B. Kozma when he wrote: "Education policies need to focus on the research, development, the generation and sharing of new knowledge and continuous learning. Schools, teachers and students need to participate in these endeavours. Knowledge generation, learning and innovation drive the knowledge economy, sustain economic growth and support social development".

It is a sad reflection of an increasingly materialistic and superficial approach to education that many spend more time discussing, say, the availability of parking spaces for students at the University or the future levels of students' stipends than how all stakeholders can get together in order to find ways and means to improve the educational system in a way that it would be able to support future employment.

It is even more worrying that most students find little time to challenge the way the educational system is being managed and to come up with alternative solutions. Most educators are equally silent, at least in public, on challenging the status quo beyond the obvious considerations of compensation for educational staff.

The critical success factor for generating jobs will always remain education. If the country gets its priorities right, the children's future will be guaranteed. The initiatives taken by Mcast and the ETC are certainly worthy acts of faith in the future.