No lectures missed

I refer to the article Court Action Again Delays Start Of IT Courses (October 28).

Courses at further education level and particularly those involving on- the-job-training, are not designed on secondary school patterns of attendance and tuition. Thus, the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (Mcast) courses may not necessarily follow the timetables with which students, who have just completed secondary education, are familiar. Courses are defined in terms of study units, learning outcomes and guided learning hours. This allows for much flexibility in the delivery of programmes. Besides, Mcast designs its timetables to accommodate as many students as possible.

The college is proud that at least part of the success attained by the aviation industry stems from the fact that, in spite of difficulties, the college was able to rise to the challenge and deliver the qualified technical staff to support the sector's requirements. The college understands that the survival and growth of the aviation industry is dependent on a constant supply of personnel trained to satisfy the requirements at various levels of technical competence. In an effort to meet the industry's needs, Mcast is frequently constrained to stretch its resources, both physical and human, to the limit.

This year, Mcast attracted a considerable number of students to this course, which however still proved insufficient, given expansion in the sector.

The college issued a second call which attracted a fresh cohort of applicants. The only way Mcast could cope with these numbers was to divide the students into groups and to stagger the starting dates over a reasonable period of time. No student will be missing any lecture and all student groups will be covering all the prescribed study units, to satisfy all the learning outcomes in the process.