Some 7,000 “idle youths”, currently out of school and employment, will be put through an obligatory training programme to try get them back into the labour force.
The new training programme, which will begin early next year, will target those aged between 16 and 25 who spend their days lazing around the house or working on the black market while receiving unemployment benefits.
Paul Zammit from the EU’s Youth Guarantee Scheme said the youths would have to participate in the programme or any other training scheme or risk losing out on State aid.
The programme will pair youths with around 30 employers across a spectrum of industries and provide them around four months of work experience and training.
Many of these youths will be at home sleeping till around 11am, stuck to their computers, living a virtual life
The ultimate aim is to encourage them to stay on as employees, move on to find new jobs or enter other training programmes.
“This is quite significant. We are talking about getting a large part of the workforce which has been lost and finally putting them back into action,” Mr Zammit said.
The issue of idle youths was first raised last February when the Times of Malta reported that some 300 15-year-olds were “disappearing” from records for education and work every year.
Nicknamed “disappearing youth” by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, the youngsters vanish from public records once they reach school leaving age.
“Many of these youths will be at home sleeping till around 11am, stuck to their computers, living a virtual life,” Mr Bartolo said.
A recent EU study on sustainability of education found that the number of idle Maltese youths had remained fairly stable over the past five years. However, in 2004 the number was actually double.
A separate government study had found that the vast majority chose to do nothing because they were “simply not interested”.
Mr Zammit said the government had trawled public databases held by the education, social benefits, and employment authorities to pinpoint the disinterested youths. A prototype of the idle youth programme was tested earlier this year, with some 350 previously idle youths taking part, Mr Zammit said. Though all had been trouble students before taking part, 80 per cent completed the programme. Many, Mr Zammit added, were already in employment, while others had signed up for further training.
Educational psychologist Elaine Zahra described the initiative as “a first spark”.
Having studied the issue of unmotivated youths for several years, Dr Zahra said they often needed to be given incentives.
“There are varied reasons why youths fall into this gap.
“And there is no one-size-fits-all solution. But showing them that they can achieve and that they do have abilities can work wonders,” she said.