Apprenticeships offered should reflect market needs, report suggests

A report on apprenticeships in Malta has found “a mismatch” between what is offered as apprenticeship and what the labour market needs.

The report, Apprenticeship Malta Review, was compiled by stakeholders in an attempt to bring to light issues and challenges and how to address them.

According to the report, there existed a mismatch between what apprenticeships offer and what the labour market actually needs. Stakeholders found that apprenticeship in education and training needed to be clarified.

“Institutions are competing between school and work-based learning. In order for apprenticeships to be sustainable, businesses need to be convinced of its contribution to the workforce and employers in general,” the report said.

The report suggested that one of the first steps was to set governance structures to ensure cooperation and equal partnership between the apprenticeship systems and the employment market systems. “Such structures should react to changes in the employment sectors as quickly as possible.”

Some 700 MCAST students are currently in apprenticeship programmes while thousands others were enrolled in other forms of work-based learning.

Taking part in a seminar reviewing the report, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo reiterated that each individual had his own way of learning, although assessment and teaching focused on just one method.

The minister said that integration between skills, education and the social sphere were essential.

"Apprenticeships encourage young people to feel like promising individuals with the potential to learn," Bartolo said.

He pointed out that such learning experiences should start at “an earlier age” to reach those who are harder to reach: "We cannot omit the social dimension in all of this. Many employers look for specific behaviour and attitudes in employing people."

Bartolo said that the formal part of education was often treated as the only thing that is important. "But this journey doesn't equip students to be creative or entrepreneurial," he added.