Malta’s low ranking in the index for digital entrepreneurship (October 26) indicates that as we move forward we are suffering from the growing pains of rapid change and facing the headwinds blowing across the developments of our economy. One of these headwinds is the mismatch between supply and demand.

This mismatch causes a shortage of skills and competences which are in high demand in the labour market and at the same time carries the inherent risk of persons being under employed.

Of course there is no educational system or policy which can – apart from should – claim to be able to produce the manpower with the requisite qualifications and in the exact quantities demanded by the economic sector.

The barometer that can provide us with reliable predictions of the jobs that will be needed is not easy to procure.

Indeed it may sound rather imprudent to make specific predictions about the future of technology and the economy.

Nevertheless, some general statements can be made. The pressing technological problems will still be with us in the future as there are no visible signs that the appetite for innovation and technological advance has been satiated. Through its educational and training programmes, the Employment and Training Corporation may go a long way in keeping abreast of the changes occurring in this digital age.

Hopefully in the next indexation exercise Malta will not be ranked in the lower rung.

By fine-tuning education to the dictates of the labour market and the economy, policymakers would be accused of pandering to the ideology of neo liberalism. But in the heightened competitiveness of the globalised economy, policy makers, whatever the political ideology they hold, can hardly ignore the tightening bond between education and the world of work.

The dominant feature of the globalised economy is the lurking fear of being overtaken by the developments and innovations that are occurring across the globe.