Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo yesterday warned that the Employment and Training Corporation risked losing about €17 million from the European Social Fund unless it became more efficient.
Speaking during the debate on the ETC estimates, Mr Bartolo said that, if the European funds were lost, employers would be adversely affected because they would have employed people while funds would not have been available.
Last year, the ETC paid €7.7 million through the Employment Aid Programme, one third of which went to Gozitans. It also disbursed €1.2 million through the Training Aid Framework.
One had to ensure that young people obtained the necessary skills to enter into the employment sector
Mr Bartolo said these were important schemes and 85 per cent of those who qualified under the Employment Air Programme were still working six months after the subsidy was terminated.
Advice given to a person amounted to just 14 hours in a year and the ratio of advisers to jobseekers was 1:325. The International Labour Organisation recommended a ratio of 1:200 while several EU member states had a ratio of 1:150.
One had to ensure that young people obtained the necessary skills to enter into the employment sector. However, 22 per cent of young people did pursue their studies beyond secondary education.
Giovanna Debono (PN) said the former government had discriminated in favour of Gozo, when it allocated €3 million out of the €17 million under the Employment Aid Scheme.
Together with Malta Enterprise, the ETC had introduced the Gozo Employment Scheme, which created 264 new jobs in Gozo.
The Work Trial Scheme had exposed 478 Gozitan youths to the different jobs in the labour market. She noted that 46 per cent of the scheme’s funds were allocated to Gozo.
Ċensu Galea (PN) focused on foreign works and said it was of concern to hear MHRA say that these were more reliable than Maltese workers in the hospitality and leisure sector.
Robert Cutajar (PN) said there was an increase of 3,000 jobs in the first quarter of 2013. Statistics also showed there was a notable increase in women participation.
Claudette Buttigieg (PN) said the job seekers advisory service played an important role. Last year, over 14,000 job seekers were unique users of the service and over 3,000 were looking for a job for the first time.
Tonio Fenech (PN) expressed fears the Government was saying too little on its plans to increase employment. Few initiatives had been taken to increase employment apart from the public sector jobs that were not sustainable. The economy needed 25,000 new work places over the next five years
Clyde Puli (PN) called for more childcare centres noting that the pre-electoral promise of opening 500 childcare spaces by next year had, since the election, not been given much attention.
Chris Agius (PL) called for a review of the ETC courses explaining that these are not as effective as one expected. Last year, only 26 people were trained as care workers for the elderly, 44 people were trained to work with the disabled and 32 in childcare. Such figures were too low.
Stephen Spiteri (PN) highlighted the fact that Malta had 150,000 full time workers and Carmelo Abela (PL) said that the ETC was not responsible for job creation.