The Federation of Industry and the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology yesterday signed a collaboration agreement to pursue areas that could be developed to the benefit of both organisations and their clients.
Through the collaboration agreement, signed by FOI president Martin Galea and MCAST principal Frank Edwards, the organisations pledged to provide a structured framework that would offer college students the opportunity to access the working world through FOI membership.
Among the objectives of the agreement, initiatives related to the provision of industry-demanded programmes and courses would be developed.
Other initiatives will include talks, participation in international and EU projects and the exchange and dissemination of labour market intelligence and good practice for benchmarking and comparative studies.
MCAST and FOI would be setting up a joint steering group to devise a mechanism to oversee any issues arising from the collaborative developments.
Mr Galea said the agreement set the framework through which the FOI, together with MCAST, would slowly start to address the specific vocational education and training requirements of its members.
"With the constantly-changing market scenarios, the business community has to keep reinventing itself to be more competitive and must be supported by a workforce that is equipped with the required skills and technological knowledge to ensure that each venture undertaken is sustainable," he added.
The two organisations have been collaborating on a number of initiatives, including the preparation and dissemination of the Employer's Guide to MCAST and, more recently, the joint development of European Social Fund project proposals, Mr Edwards said.
Described as "one of the most important and exciting agreements" MCAST would have signed, Mr Edwards said it ensured that the college was linked to and in sync with crucial sectors of industry for which it would be re-skilling people in order to be better able to meet the technical challenges of their jobs.
Through the FOI membership base, the agreement would create opportunities for MCAST staff and students as well as ensuring that the college played a major role in responding to economic imperatives with regard to a knowledge-based industry, Mr Edwards said.