The national youth policy being drawn up by Parliamentary Secretary Clyde Puli is in its final stages and is expected to be presented to the Cabinet of Ministers for discussion before the end of the year.

In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, Mr Puli said that he has been working on the policy ever since he took over responsibility for the youth sector in the Education Ministry in March last year.

“I have met all the stakeholders – including members of the Labour Party’s youth section – who had an interest in the policy. I am now close to finalising the document to present it to Cabinet. I am not in a position to say when the youth policy will be on the Cabinet’s agenda, but I do hope it will come up for discussion in the shortest time possible,” he said.

The youth policy will deal with all aspects that young people are involved in – employment, education, health, sport and art are only a few of them. The policy will provide the way forward in a sector that is high on the government’s priority list.

This can be seen, Mr Puli added, when one takes a look at the budget for 2010. The government has laid great emphasis on employment, and young people stand to gain a lot if the right opportunities – in terms of education and employment – are created for them.



Young people in transition

“The majority of new jobs are available to the younger generations because of the type of skills required, which is why the government invests heavily in education. The government wants young people to be prepared for the new generation of jobs that are planned to come our way.

“It must be remembered that young people are in transition. They are growing up. They are moving from secondary to tertiary education and beyond. They are looking for a job. They are forming their own family. And they need to be helped as much as possible to achieve their aims,” he said.

What is different for today’s generation of young people is that, unlike what happened to past generations of youth, the skills they are required to have are changing more rapidly than they used to.

In the past, young people used to think that their first job would be their last one. Today, young people realise that even if they had to stay in their first job for life, they need to update their skills because things are changing fast and they need to adapt to the changing circumstances.

“It is, after all, the concept of lifelong learning that needs to be understood. Lifelong learning is not only for middle-aged and elderly people who need to be retrained in new skills. Even young people should realise that they have to keep abreast with developments and that, sometimes, they ought to invest in their own self by attending courses that open up new horizons for them,” Mr Puli said.

Not every project is as vast as SmartCity, but there are several other niches that have opened up new opportunities for young people, he added.



Sports tourism

Turning to speak about sports, Mr Puli said that sport as a contributor to the economy is a fast-growing sector. This year, the number of bed nights for sports tourism totalled 22,000, and he is sure that this sector could grow further.

“It is not only football teams that we are talking about. Several other sport disciplines could involve themselves more. The government is offering a helping hand with a number of incentives aimed to encourage sport associations to bring over foreign counterparts for festivals, competitions or even seminars.”

For example, cricket is considered to be a small sport in Malta, yet some 3,000 bed nights were taken by cricket players and their supporters this year. “I think that sport associations that have contacts abroad – some local representatives also sit on committees of foreign federations – should use all their influence to attract more visitors to Malta.”

Mr Puli said that Malta offers a wide array of facilities, most of which are used by local athletes in the early morning or after work. “This means that these facilities are unoccupied for huge chunks of the day. We should all work harder to maximise the use of sport facilities, and get a return from the investment that was made.”

The Kirkop sports complex is nearing completion and plans for another complex in Qawra have been drawn up.



Change of mentality

Apart from this, the newer schools today also have sport facilities that could be used after school hours, and in this respect the parliamentary secretariat is encouraging organisations, and even local councils, to take an interest in the facilities provided.

“We live a sedentary life and the use of computers and video games is growing, meaning that fewer people engage in physical activity. This happens also among children, and it is not a secret that many of today’s children are overweight. This has pushed us to start a programme in Year 3 through which students get a taste of gymnastics, athletics and swimming over a period of three years to encourage them to practise some kind of sport.”

Mr Puli is working on other objectives. He would like to see sport disciplines that are more or less similar grouped in one area. “Just as much as we have swimming and water polo both being held at the Tal-Qroqq pool, for example I would like to see more activities connected with horses – such as dressage and polo – taking place at Marsa, as well as a complex where all different shooting activities take place.”

Early next year, an open-air fitness centre will be inaugurated at Ta’ Qali, close to the adventure park. “The idea is to have people who go for picnics do something else other than lie on the grass. Of course, the centre will be available to other people during the week.”

The swimming complex at Tal-Qroqq will be closed for between six to eight weeks as from 22 November to allow for maintenance work on the pools.



scalleja@independent.com.mt