A deed that will see the Libyan Higher Vocational Institute Centre of Excellence at Ta’ Giorni invest €22.4 million and open up to international students was signed this afternoon between Education Minister Evarist Bartolo and Libya’s Minister for Labour and Capacity Building Mohamed Swalem.

The institute will adhere to local standards for its qualifications to be recognised by Malta.

The first phase of the institute’s internationalisation project includes a €1.4 million refurbishment, currently underway and expected to take nine months.

Eventually, applications will be submitted to Mepa for the development of additional buildings including residences, increasing the current 160 to 250. The institute will be able to take more than 900 students.

Some courses managed by Mcast are currently held at the institute including IT, mechanical engineering, electronics and welding.

The institute wants to manage three courses which it would manage including English language (for Libyans), Arabic, and leadership and management.

Institute general director Mahmoud Sawani said this was a historical moment since Malta had been chosen as one of Libya’s international strategic countries to help it develop it its education sector.

Mr Swalem said that Malta was considered the closest among the countries that were close to Libya. It had the necessary experience to help Libya attain its aim of supporting the country with training to increase employment.

Mr Bartolo said that Malta believed that it could have a strong education sector as it had a strong financial one.

The agreement, he said, came at the right time as the government wanted to developed voctational education to tackle unemployment as a challenge.