The European Alliance for Apprenticeships was the focus of a high-level conference organised by the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (Mcast) at its main campus in Paola in cooperation with the European Commission and the Maltese presidency of the European Council.
The conference celebrated the first four first years of the alliance by highlighting some of its achievements and successes, while also looking at current challenges and the way forward.
Opening the event, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo stressed on the need to strengthen the main objective of the alliance to bring together governments with other key stakeholders to strengthen the quality, supply and image of apprenticeships in Europe. He also spoke about the relevance of apprenticeship as an effective solution to several critical problems in the job market.
Among the other speakers at the conference were the president of the Mcast board of governors Silvio De Bono, DG Employment director of skills Detlef Eckert and Cedefop director James Calleja.
The conference was attended by representatives of companies, social partners, providers of vocational education and training (VET), chambers, NGOs and youth organisations, as well as policy-makers at national, regional and European level.
The conference followed a two-day meeting in Malta of directors general of VET and other senior officials from the EU Member States, candidate countries, EEA zone countries, representatives of the European Commission, the European Commission agencies and European social partners.