The eSkills Alliance Malta was launched by the government this morning at the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry.
The alliance will aim to address skills shortages within the ICT industry which is hindering the sector from reaching its full potential. The project came to fruition after the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA) took the initiative, as part of its Human Capital programme, to set up the local branch of this specialised alliance.
Communications Minister Austin Gatt described the initiative as “key to Malta’s future economic success and key to Vision 2015”.
Two senior officials from e-skills UK were also present for the launch. Mr Martin Harvey, who is a member of the senior team and leads strategy development in the UK – and Mr Nigel Payne who is the lead contact for the European Commission, the UK Government and the UK Trades Unions, shared experiences and best practices that e-skills UK has garnered over several years working with the industry in preparing the ICT workforce for the United Kingdom.
MITA’s chairman Claudio Grech described the alliance as the collective voice and authoritative entity in ensuring that Malta offered the best possible supply of ICT professionals required by the international and national ICT industry.
The alliance includes the University of Malta, MCAST and the Education Ministry as the main decision-makers in ICT education and skills supply.
The Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) and MITA are also part of this body in their quest to address the current gap that exists between the resources and skills needed by the ICT industry and the resources and skills available in the labour market.
Following the official launch of the alliance, MITA led its first meeting and embarked on the necessary discussions for the establishment of an eSkills Competence Framework.
Present for these discussions were members of the alliance, as well as, a human resources expert nominated by the Chamber of Commerce and advisors from the Malta Qualifications Council as chief experts on qualifications frameworks.
www.mita.gov.mt/eskillsalliance