Making Malta a learning nation

As the word implies, lifelong learning is an ongoing and exciting process. But I wish to repeat what I had said some time ago, that we need to review what we mean by the very notion of ‘learning’. As policy-makers, we have the duty to provide and facilitate tangible opportunities for relevant education beyond compulsory schooling age.

Because this form of education has become so important in our lives, various short and long courses have been developed to help those who stopped studying a while back or who simply want to learn something new. Lifelong learning takes the form of short courses, vocational qualifications and university degrees.

The total number of those participating in the many varied courses offered this year is encouraging. In all there were almost 17,000 applications. Of these, the number of females attending these courses outnumbers that of males by almost two to one. In fact we have had 11,138 females as compared to 5,775 applications by males.

A further analysis shows that the range is skewed in favour of the 51-65 age group, which accounts for almost 25 per cent of all participants. Another 4,511 fall within the 31-50 age range. Good, but Lifelong Learning is not only Adult Learning. The Directorate for Lifelong Learning is fully aware of the challenge of introducing more and more young adults to Lifelong Learning Courses. In the National Lifelong Learning Strategy 2020, we have set some important targets, including that of increasing the rate of adult learning from around 7% to 15% by 2020.

There are around 1,500 students in the 17-24 age group following Lifelong Learning courses. These could well fall under the Early School Leaving Category and the Directorate will work even harder to reach out to this particular age group. In fact, a more focused campaign to target this age range will be launched. The Directorate is also collaborating with the Education Department to make Lifelong Learning courses easily accessible to all school leavers with effect from the next scholastic year.

Another effort is being made with the Department for Local Government to encourage more widespread promotion and participation at Local Council level. Although this facility has been in existence for some time, it needs a more aggressive campaign to attract students to these courses.

Last year we organised revision (or supplementary) classes for those who had completed Form 5. This year the Directorate is collecting the necessary data to be in a position to offer this type of revision to students who will be approaching Form 5 in the coming scholastic year.

Access to relevant learning throughout life is a fundamental cornerstone in our aspirations to have a sustainable knowledge-based society and economy. Our vision is for Malta to become a learning nation – a society in which learning plays its full role in personal growth and emancipation, prosperity, solidarity and local and global responsibility. Equally important is our determination to lever on this strategy to empower citizens through more personalised and innovative approaches to adult education.