University of Malta engineering graduates 'far more employable'

Engineering and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) graduates from the University of Malta have nearly double the prospects of landing themselves well-paid employment in a field that lives up to their career aspirations.

This has emerged from a comparison with other state-funded institutions offering Engineering and ICT education, published in the national Employability Index Report issued by the Ministry for Education and Employment, this October.

“The University is clearly shoring up the national statistics when it comes to the overall employability of tertiary education graduates.”

The Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Dr Ing. Andrew Sammut, said that during last month’s graduation ceremony he had the opportunity to listen to the immediate plan of each and every graduate.

“I was very happy to hear that not one student mentioned that he or she was still seeking employment. Roughly half have found immediate employment in an engineering field, and the rest have chosen to continue studying, some in Malta, but many of them overseas - mainly in the UK’s top universities.”

The chart shows the percentage of graduates of the 2012 and 2013 cohorts who immediately found employment matching their field of study, and then held it in the years subsequent to the year of their graduation. In some cases, this percentage appears to increase with time.

“What really matters is that our students are able to find employment in the areas they were trained for, or in related fields that they ultimately enjoy working in. It would have been a great shame if after having invested so heavily in our students, they were limited to employment for which they feel grossly overqualified. However, clearly this doesn’t seem to be happening. They are indeed using their skills, and our product is evidently being appreciated by the industry and by international universities,” the Dean said.

The practical element in all Engineering courses is now at the strongest levels ever, with students spending over half their learning time in state-of-the-art laboratories, where they gain analysis and design skills in a wide range of subject areas covered by six departments: Systems and Control, Electronics, Electrical Power Conversion, Materials and Metallurgy, Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering.

The assessment methodologies adopted in the Engineering fields have been re-geared to measure the students’ ability to perform on the job. There is a much higher focus on problem solving skills, teamwork, self-motivation and the students’ capacity to expand their own knowledge and their intellectual capacity to handle unforeseen challenges facing the industry now and into the future.

Ing. Alexander Galea is Senior Engineering Manager at Methode Electronics Malta Ltd. As a subsidiary of Methode Electronics Inc., this is a major company in Malta developing, manufacturing and producing switches, sensors and controls for various industries predominantly the automotive sector.

“Retaining competitiveness has been possible through the development and launching of new technologically advanced products and processes, which in turn have been developed and maintained through our highly technical workforce,” Galea said.

“The University of Malta, especially through the engineering and sciences faculties, has been instrumental, through its cooperation with the industry, in training engineers and providing technical resources that are of a high standard, immediately employable, and with the ability to develop further and rapidly within Methode Electronics to become future inventors and leaders”.

There are also clear indications that higher levels of education are leading to better employability of the overall workforce. Between 2008 and 2014 Malta had registered a 10% decline (95.9% to 86.8%) in the employability of young people with non-tertiary education (ISCED 3-4).

This was reported in the recent EU Education and Training Monitor Report recently published by the European Commission. However, the situation is markedly better in the case of those with high-end tertiary education (ISCED 5-8) where the employability remained more buoyant (95.5% to 94.6%) across the same interval.

The University of Malta is seen as one of the crucial assets of the country, tangibly contributing to Malta’s economic development. The University has earned itself a solid reputation for quality education that can be evidenced in the way graduates of the Engineering, ICT and other faculties are being received by the industry. Such graduates are certified to meet the highest standards required to be able to remain competitive in a fast changing world.