Who’s teaching our teachers?

Prof. Maurice Grech, principal and CEO at Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology, explains how Mcast lecturers keep up-to-date through continuous professional development and ongoing quality assurance processes.

As young pupils, most of us may have looked up at our teachers as the source of all the answers. Today, we know this can never be the case. Lecturers don’t stop learning once they start teaching.

Learning is an ongoing process in any profession, but even more so at Mcast’s staff room, where what you know, and how you get it across, has a direct impact on the career aspirations and on the quality of life of thousands of students. It also determines the quality of the country’s labour force.

Mcast’s principal function is to provide vocational and professional education that meets the ever-changing demands of Malta’s economy. All the courses are in a constant state of change, as the college responds to the latest developments in various industries and professions.

In this regard, the college’s 600-plus lecturers need to keep their ears to the ground and understand the current and future practical and theoretical trends in the sectors their students will eventually be working in.

Until a few years ago, for example, few people would have considered a career in renewable energy solutions.

A few months ago, Mcast met representatives of this growing local industry and identified the main areas of study required for new courses aimed at preparing students for these green jobs.

As a result, Mcast’s Institute of Building and Construction Engineering will be opening new courses on renewable energy services this September.

In fact, it is already organising training for its staff in Germany before the latter start preparing teaching material for these courses.

Mcast lecturers have several continuous professional development opportunities to choose from. They have opportunities to obtain financial and logistical assistance to pursue a postgraduate course, up to Ph.D level, from local or international institutions.

Additionally, through a project co-funded by the EU’s European Social Fund, the college has partnered with Fraunhofer-Gesell­schaft, a world-renowned German research institution that employs over 15,000 scientists, university professors and engineers, to provide customised Masters degree programmes for graduate lecturers. Professors from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and other partner institutions came to Malta to deliver the lectures. During the summer recess, Mcast’s lecturers will travel to the UK, Italy and Germany for a three- month research placement. In this way, the lecturers are not only gaining invaluable knowledge from Europe’s most advanced economies, but also establishing important contacts with international industry experts, with whom they exchange information which they will later pass on to their students.

Mcast’s Vocational Teacher Training Unit also coordinates various courses to provide lecturers with key knowledge, understanding and practical skills required for successful teaching.

Such courses develop several teaching skills, including the application of educational theories to practical and realistic classroom situations, the synthesis of a range of concepts, and the ability to research and investigate educational policies and practices.

In this regard, some 50 lecturers are following a BTEC Level 5 Certificate in Further Education.

On June 1, another group of 90 lecturers will be graduating with a postgraduate certificate in ­Vocational Education and Training funded by the same abovementioned ESF programme.

This course provides advanced training on the philosophical and psychological aspects of learning, assessment procedures, as well as ­innovative teaching methods, including e-learning.

In some cases, the college has to act fast and prepare its lecturers to meet an urgent demand by industry. When Lufthansa Technik announced the opening of a new aircraft maintenance plant that required hundreds of specially-trained technical employees, Mcast collaborated with the industry to develop new aircraft maintenance workshops and bring foreign experts to train Mcast lecturers.

Eventually, the European Aviation Safety Agency recognised Mcast as a certified training centre. Over 600 students have already completed aviation maintenance courses, providing the necessary human resources for this sector to grow even further.

In the meantime, during the past two years Mcast also launched its first degree programmes. This required a substantial investment in the college’s lecturing staff.

Initially, professors from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and other international universities visited Malta to deliver lectures to Mcast students. College lecturers were assigned to ‘shadow’ their counterpart professor. These lecturers gradually took over the delivery of the course modules and now Mcast is offering these programmes under its own steam.

In September, as Mcast enters its third year of degree programmes, the number of degree courses will increase to 19, from the original seven, while the number of graduates is expected to treble, exceeding 300.

As the number of courses (over 140 full-time courses and 300 part-time courses) and students increase, it becomes even more important to ensure that a high quality of delivery is maintained.

Continuous training is complemented by a constant quality assurance process.

In this regard, twice a year Mcast welcomes external verifiers from Edexcel, the UK’s largest awarding body offering academic and vocational qualifications and testing to schools, and other places of learning.

These verifiers monitor various stages of the Mcast courses, and indicate areas where further training or resources are required.

At the same time, the college is currently also in the process of completing a skills gap analysis, to obtain a full picture of areas where further investment in academic and other staff is needed.

The college will soon be conducting appraisal procedures as part of its quality assurance process. This exercise includes class visits and other measures to ensure that the college’s quality benchmarks are being reached.

The quality assurance effort is not only about making sure students are receiving the best education possible. It is not simply about assessing teachers’ performance.

It is also meant to give Mcast regular updates on the resources required by the ­staff to enhance the classroom ­experience, to increase the effectiveness of tuition, as well as to identify weaknesses at an early stage and swiftly implement ­solutions.

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If you wish to contribute an article or would like a particular subject tackled in the Education section, call Davinia Hamilton on 2559 4513 or e-mail dhamilton@timesofmalta.com.