One out of every four students reaching school-leaving age is quitting the education system prematurely and being ‘lost’, a seminar organised by the Employment and Training Corporation was told.

Addressing the seminar, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo described the situation as “unacceptable” and said that the administration was doing its utmost to address the problem.

The issue was also raised by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who said despite good economic results, there were still so many students who “quit the system”.

One of the measures the government was looking at was to stimulate interest in vocational training even through secondary schools.

Dr Muscat said there was still too much of a stigma associated with skills and vocational education. There was a need for a mentality shift: success did not necessarily depend on a student attending uiversity.

The seminar focused on a new study by the ETC, ‘Employability Index 2015’, which for the first time examined the employment of graduates from the university, MCAST and the ITS.

It found that more than 65 per cent of graduates manage to find a job that meets their qualifications within their first year of employment. This figure increases over time, signalling that experience is also an important requisite for graduates to move up the career ladder.

However, 17 per cent of graduates from the University of Malta were employed in jobs for which they were overqualified in the first year after their graduation.