Clyde Caruana was appointed chairman of the Employment and Training Corporation last April, shortly before the government published its Employment Policy. He tells Vanessa Macdonald it is time to rethink the corporation’s role.

CEO Philip Rizzo said recently that the ETC is seen as “the recruiter of labour that could not keep up with the times”. You are not seen as the place to go to, by either employers or employees...

Over the years, the ETC has not managed to keep up with the expectations of either employers or employees. When I came out of University, it never occurred to me to come here to register for a job even though I was unemployed for three months. About 25 per cent of the workforce have tertiary education but only 10 per cent of the vacancies we list are for people with such skills.

Did you know that only 35 per cent of those looking for work actually register with ETC? The European standard is about 70-80 per cent.

This is very contrary to the perception of the public: that there are many people registering who do not actually want to work...

That is not the case. For someone to claim social benefits, they must register with the ETC. There is a connotation that you only go to ETC if you want benefits. How are we going to change this?

The current website is not at all user-friendly and must be completely overhauled. We are discussing our plans for new software and a new interface with our French, German and Belgian counterparts. It should be up and running by next year. We want to develop a virtual labour market online, something that is not available at the moment.

There is a connotation that you only go to ETC if you want benefits. How are we going to change this?

What role do you see for private recruitment companies?

We do not want their market and we do not want to compete with them. There is a market failure out there in terms of information and the ETC must fulfil that role. But a substantial amount of money has to be invested in IT.

How are you going to match jobseekers and vacancies up more effectively?

A unit is going to profile every job available on the labour ­market in terms of the qualifications and skills required. If a person wants to be a teacher, he will be matched against the profile. If he does not fulfil the criteria, he will either have to get more ­training or be referred to another job.

The system will not depend on the client telling us what he wants to register for.

It will also flag jobs he might not have considered. For example, people have no idea what sort of jobs are available in the i-gaming sector.

And, of course, it will also ­suggest what training is available to fill gaps for the original choice...

Should ETC still provide training when the vocational training through Mcast and other providers has improved so much?

We will outsource some of our training needs, perhaps to Mcast. But we have to be very careful to ensure that it has the capacity to provide it.

We are auditing our own training arm because what we have now is not working. For the next nine months, we recruited a number of trainees through direct contracts. That system cannot continue forever.

As from next year, we will have direct links with Mcast and the Institute of Tourism Studies and a framework agreement with key private players.

What are you after? Lower costs, flexibility, avoiding duplication with private offerings?

Punctuality. It takes us at least seven months to develop and deliver a course. That is not acceptable. I would like to be able to deliver training within two, certainly no more than three, months.

By the time the course is up and running, the number of participants accumulates and we do not have enough places for them all. We then have to do sessions at other times or recruit other trainers. If we have timely delivery, this would address this problem too.

At the moment we are involved in too many things. Our mission should be to keep the unemployment rate low...

At the moment, we are involved in too many things. Our mission should be to keep the unemployment rate low and at the same time reduce any labour market imperfections. Any other deliverables we should look at and if need be – like the apprenticeship system now handled by Mcast – pass on to someone else.

Most chairmen try to increase their empire, not reduce it.

I am not looking at that at all.

How is the ETC going to “make work pay”?

The government is going to introduce “in work benefits” in the coming Budget. At present we give people benefits to stay at home and do nothing. The concept is to encourage people to take up a job, even if it pays minimum wage, by topping up the income if they need it.

We distributed a questionnaire among those on social benefits asking them for their reservation wage – the minimum for which they were willing to work. The average was €11,000, barely a few thousand more than the minimum wage.

What about enforcement?

Right now there are discussions between different ministries on the possibility of merging the inspectorates of the ETC, the Department of Social Security, Employment and Industrial Relations and the Occupational Health and Safety Authority. It does not make sense to have so many resources chasing the same ­workplaces.

Who will this fall under?

Definitely not us. There is enough for us to do. For example, we do not have a problem of unemployment but we have a big problem with underemployment. There are people who want to work more hours and others who are overqualified for their jobs. There is no unemployment with regards to universitygraduates – but does that mean that they are all employed appropriately. It is not for everyone trained in a specific field to find work in that field. But it is also true that we do not have any information. How many are there? In which sectors?

So far our policies have been reactive. I prefer to take decisions based on research. For example, before I set up free child care I did four months of research, then months of negotiations with the private sector and only then did we launch the service. It might not be perfect but it is working well. So far 2,400 mothers are using the service; my target was 2,000 by year end. We still have to analyse how many were inactive, but a good number were on parental leave and returned to the workforce earlier.

What about the very long-term unemployed who defy all attempts to find them jobs?

They are going to have a hard time... So far, you can specify what type of job you are looking for but, with the new system, once you are profiled, you will be eligible for different jobs. If you do not accept that job, then you will be struck off the register. As simple as that.

Until they phone up a minister or MP and get reinstated...

No. They will not be reinstated. Look at the unemployment figures. They have gone down substantially in the past few months. Enforcement is being taken seriously.

If this process is stopped, I will simply leave. We mean business. If I am entrusted with ETC and it needs an overhaul, it will get one.