Reference is made to the headline article (TMID 18 December) entitled ETC officers say training offered to unemployed ‘ineffective’.

The first paragraph of this article stated that, according to ETC employment advisers, “Training offered to the unemployed is not helpful and only five per cent manage to find a job which is related to the training that is offered by the Employment and Training Corporation.”

The corporation had accepted an invitation from the National Family Commission earlier this year during which ETC employment advisers were asked to discuss the problems that the unemployed faced. ETC management acted professionally by allowing employment advisers to freely express themselves and provide their personal opinions to researchers, as we believe in identifying problems and finding suitable solutions for them, preferably with the assistance of stakeholders.

While being fully convinced that our advisers wanted to contribute their best to the discussion, it is important to emphasise that the statement

mentioned in the first paragraph of your article indicates the personal opinion/perception of one or more of our advisers. The percentage effectiveness mentioned in the first paragraph does not result from any research undertaken by the corporation and does not necessarily reflect reality.

One must bear in mind that some of our basic skills courses, such as the literacy course, will not on their own enable a person to find a job but will provide greater opportunity for that person to qualify for further vocational training, ultimately resulting in employment.

Moreover, the registered unemployed do not always attend courses voluntarily and the consequence of this is that while acquiring skills through ETC courses, they may not be so willing to find a job. ETC has a dual role in this respect – that of training provider and containing abuse of the unemployment register.

Notwithstanding this scenario, a tracer study of past trainees indicates that, on average, 62 per cent of the unemployed persons recently trained by ETC are in employment. This is the average figure, as some courses had a success rate exceeding 90 per cent. This clearly indicates the effectiveness of ETC courses.

We look forward to being consulted by the National Family Commission about the findings of their research, as this will give us the opportunity to provide our detailed feedback before the publication of the report.

The Employment and Training Corporation remains committed to guide and train the unemployed to enhance their employability and improve their chances of securing employment. Increased local funding, and the approval of EU-funded projects, empowers us to strengthen our training capability and increase the range of training courses available according to the very challenging commitments entered into in the National Action Plan for Employment for 2005.

Felix Borg

General Manager (Operations)

Employment and Training Corporation