The White Paper on childcare says Malta has the “least-educated workforce in the early years”. Photo: Jason Borg

Childcare centre managers are being tested to establish whether their experience can make up for their lack of academic qualifications.

Only one manager actually had the qualifications needed to meet existing standards regulating the sector, a recent study showed.

The others may be deemed qualified through their experience in a process called trade testing, an Education Ministry spokesman said.

While a child carer must have a level 4 qualification, equivalent to a diploma, recognised by the Malta Qualifications Council, a manager must have a level 5 qualification.

The recently launched White Paper on childcare – which paves the way for the introduction of free childcare for working parents – quoted a 2012 study showing that only one out of the 52 managers of registered childcare centres had a recognised level 5 qualification.

Thirteen had qualifications that were not recognised by the MQC, 12 had recognised qualifications that were not related to childcare, 20 had a level 4 qualification and six had none whatsoever.

The spokesman said that in order to qualify as managers, they must also have at least three years’ experience in childcare.

The standards came into force in January 2012.

While the situation may have improved over the past year, with the number of registered centres increasing to 73, the White Paper says: “Malta has the least-educated workforce in the early years with the shortest period of initial training.”

It recommended strengthening the training programmes to put more emphasis on the educational element of childcare centres.

Times of Malta asked the ministry spokesman what would be done to ensure that managers of childcare centres are qualified.

He said: “The situation is being addressed through trade testing. The main problem was that carers had a lower qualification than is requested by the standards. This situation arose because the standards were published too late in the day, when many carers had already been in work for many years.

“Trade testing basically serves to validate the skills learned during the work experience, hence carers will have their qualification in line with the current standards.”