The director of the new multi-million Libyan institute at Ta’ Giorni hopes Libya’s first centre of excellence outside the country is proof of his country’s new face.
“We want to be part of the rest of the world, so one of the main objectives of this institute is to build Libya’s labour capacity.
“We hope that through this centre we upgrade our qualifications and equip others from all over the world with the necessary tools for today’s job markets,” Mahmoud Sawani told The Sunday Times of Malta.
Last month, Malta and Libya signed a deed that will see the €22.4 million investment in the Libyan Higher Vocational Institute Centre of Excellence open to international students.
Asked how the centre planned to convince people that the Ta’ Giorni institute was no longer exclusively for Libyans, Dr Sawani said the cultural shift will take time.
“I hope people will see the difference in the near future. Hopefully, when they see the end results they will forget all about the Libyan school, and start to understand it is now a centre of excellence.”
Dr Sawani, who graduated in aerospace engineering, was born into a family of farmers some 35 kilometres outside Tripoli.
He noted that Valletta was Tripoli’s nearest capital city, and the connection between the two countries dates back centuries. In Tripoli the surname ‘Malti’ shows there are Maltese ancestors.
Dr Sawani is now based in Malta and is working on the institute’s academic programme.
More than 100 students sponsored by the Libyan government will this month start courses managed by the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology, at the Libyan institute.
The courses include electronics, electric engineering, mechanical engineering, ICT and welding, while some will also be sitting in for classes of English as a Foreign Language.
Another course the institute will be hosting is leadership and management for public administrators.
While the institute is refurbished in the next five years, the administrators will draw up other courses including tourism and leisure, media, diplomacy and negotiation studies, said Bryan Magro, who is working with the institute on its new project.
“There are hundreds of vocational institutes in Libya, but this is our first centre of excellence outside the country.
Dr Sawani added: “This will be a state-of-the-art institute... a candle in the Mediterranean and the sky will be our limit. Our place here is strategic. Imagine the Mediterranean 15 years after the Arab Spring. This centre will be a gate to the EU and North Africa, and once the transitional period for Libya is over, we hope we are the strongest link
In five years, the institute will be able to host 900 students and provide accommodation on campus for 275 pupils. All the old buildings in the 37,000 square-metre area will be pulled down to make way for newer ones.
The area dedicated for sports is as large as three football pitches next to each other and it will have an underground parking for some 300 cars.