Evarist Bartolo

We do not want an education system that simply prepares people for employability. We want to provide an education experience to our children and young people that prepares them with the necessary life skills and values to be active citizens in an open, democratic, inclusive and diverse society.

European Union members states agree that societies need people who are flexible, can think critically, creatively, can solve problems and are able to work with others in a global job market. Schools and education institutions need to empower children and young people to achieve the necessary skills and values that need to be tested in the real world to be considered effective.

We tend to confuse certification and qualifications with skills and competencies. We can have people who do very well in formal education but then lack the skills, attitudes and values needed in the 21st century. We cannot expect this from formal education alone. From a young age, children should be engaged in the community, developing their volunteerism and social solidarity. Through apprenticeships, internships and traineeships young people should also be exposed to the reality of the workplace, providing work-based learning.

Education reforms take time to become visible; they have the potential to unleash talent and open the path towards myriad opportunities. But this can only be done if we stop forcing students to fit and conform to a one-size-fits-all education system, where success is only measured as passes in formal tests and exams.

The best education combines theory and practice, not only learning about something but also learning how to do it. In the past three years, this government has boosted the education system by focusing on making education attractive to young people, even those hardest to reach. Students do not simply drop out of the system, they are pushed out because the system does not cater for them.

Through initiatives such as Youth Guarantee, Alternative Learning Programme, Youth.Inc, traineeships and GEM16, no young person is left behind. We are making progress on this front but, 70 years after introducing compulsory schooling for all, education for all is still an elusive dream.

Making learning an attractive journey for all students is the ideal we should pursue

Making learning an attractive journey for all students is the ideal we should pursue; bringing together knowledge, practical experience, acquisition of skills, attitudes and qualifications, development of values, creativity and innovation.

As the study by the National Commission for Further and Higher Education, together with Jobsplus and Malta Enterprise, showed, the skills considered as most important by employers were communication skills, team-work, English language and customer handling skills.These are skills that our exam-obsessed system does not cultivate in our young people. When do we develop their public speaking, the culture of debate, the courage to criticise and question openly?

These findings indicate a need to furnish young people with skills that are needed for both democratic citizenship and employability.

Learning is a lifelong process. One can have academic certificates and still lack the ingredients required to compete in a dynamic labour market. It is for this reason that this government is investing in initiatives that bring training and lifelong learning closer to the individual, offering individuals the possibility to pursue their studies in a wide array of subjects.

Jobsplus is also collaborating with employers by subsidising training of employees while also offering training courses in the areas of choice, free of charge.

We cannot be complacent even if we have the highest rate in the European Union when it comes to graduate employment and the lowest rate when it comes to youth unemployment. We have skills gaps to fill and skills mismatches to address. That is why we will be setting up a National Skills Council to work together with education institutions and work organisations to ensure that we develop the talents and skills needed for this country to continue improving our quality of life.

Evarist Bartolo is Minister for Education and Employment.

Therese Comodini Cachia

The human skill we need now and, more so, in the future is the skill of collaboration. This encompasses the ability to empathise, to communicate one´s thoughts and ideas, to analyse and understand information, to apply information gathered in different contexts, to think critically, to be creative and find solutions, to appreciate cultural and creative works, to understand that society includes different personal realities but that we are Maltese and, consequently, have an identity.

This tall order represents aspects of intelligence, not least of emotional intelligence which our education system often tends to push aside and prefers to focus on information intelligence (how many topics you know). The latter is good but alone it will not lead to civic and environmental engagement. Information intelligence needs to be complimented with a series of other abilities.

But we cannot expect all this to be done by our educators alone nor even within a rigid teaching and learning environment. At this point, therefore, it is important that I state what should be obvious but may not necessarily be so.

Our education system often tends to push aside emotional intelligence and prefers to focus on information intelligence

Firstly, education is for everyone. For example, as much as lack of literacy (reading, writing, numeracy and digital literacy) is a concern in children and youths, it is also a concern for the older generations.

Secondly, that pockets in our society have not gained the required skills for today or for the future is not because our educators have failed.

The ´education system´ is not just about compulsory and higher and further education. Neither is it about the learning experience of only children and youths. Our system tends to forget about lifelong learning processes.

Very often, the skills or abilities we need for civic and environmental engagement cannot be obtained by sitting at a desk but by being exposed to different learning experiences and environments. We need to promote collaborative learning communities where we focus not only on ´what will I achieve´ but also on ´how will we achieve more together´.

Knowledge of a language is the basic tool for communication and there are several opportunities within our education system where this knowledge can be obtained from. However civic and environmental engagement requires the ability to formulate thoughts and communicate these to others. Consequently, our education system also needs to progress into truly recognising the importance of the ability to understand different perspectives, which represent different backgrounds and life experiences.

This is not necessary only because of migration but it is even more necessary for us to understand what being Maltese is and what being European and global means and, consequently, shed our insularity.

A 21st century educational system needs to encompass an intermeshing of the local, the European and the global. It needs structures and processes that facilitate teaching and learning environments that enable this.

The technical skill we need most now and more so in the future is eskills and digital fluency. I do not mean merely being able to use software but, more so, that we start understanding the process and be able to create the software or digital process ourselves. We cannot continue to live the present merely by being digital or online without even understanding the process and we certainly cannot go to the future without knowing how to be actors (and not merely consumers or end users) in the digital environment.

In all this we need to be wary of a system that seeks to ´churn out´ skills as the skills we need cannot be force-fed to learners. They imply a creative and differentiated educational environment that fosters active learning, from the first years of life onwards. They also imply a system that nourishes the concept of education as being inclusive of skills for employment but also of knowing how to live, interact within society and adapt to life situations.

Therese Comodini Cachia is Shadow Minister for Education and Employment.

If you would like to put any questions to the two parties in Parliament send an e-mail marked clearly Question Time to editor@timesofmalta.com.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.