The Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology has launched for discussion an important proposal to strengthen its organisational structure to enable it to develop and strengthen all the different areas of its wide-ranging remit.

The proposal has been presented to all Mcast staff members as well as to the two unions representing them – the Malta Union of Teachers and Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin. The proposal has now also started being explained in the weekly meetings with staff members of the different Mcast institutes. Meetings will also be held with student representatives.

Mcast has a wide-ranging and unique remit in the post-secondary sector. Within the Malta Qualifications Framework, Mcast provides level 1 and 2 foundation programmes for students who may have left schooling without any formal qualifications to help them to at least achieve level 3 vocational qualifications and possibly even more.

Mcast also provides level 4 courses to students who may wish to enter employment at technician level or who may aspire to continue their studies at a higher degree level.

Lastly, Mcast offers courses at level 5 and 6 in which students aim to achieve a first degree.

All these different levels are an important and vital part of Mcast’s mission. In order to strengthen each of these different levels, Mcast’s structure needs to develop further to cater in a better way for students’ needs at different levels.

Mcast will remain one organisation incorporating all these levels and emphasising the possibility of a continuous pathway between the different levels.

In order to strengthen its focus on students’ different needs at the different levels, three colleges will be introduced under the Mcast umbrella as follows:

• The Foundation college, catering for students attending programmes at level 1,2 and 3;

• The Technical college, catering for students in level 4 programmes;

• The Professional college, catering for students in level 5 and 6 programmes.

All Mcast lecturers will continue working under exactly the same conditions as present, as staff members of the different institutes, and will continue performing lecturing duties in all programmes falling under the remit of any of the three colleges.

All Mcast administrative and support staff will retain their present conditions.

In order to maximise synergies between different vocational areas, the proposal envisages that there will be six Mcast institutes and the Gozo campus, as follows:

• Institute of Engineering & Transport (Electrical & Electronics, Mechanical, Building and Construction and Maritime);

• Institute of Business and Commerce;

• Institute of Computer Science;

• Institute for the Creative Arts;

• Institute of Applied Sciences (Applied Science and Agribusiness);

• Institute of Community Services;

• Gozo campus.

All present courses and programmes will continue without interruption and for the next academic year all present programmes and courses will run as planned.

Silvio De Bono is president of the Mcast board of governors.