Thousands of fourth and fifth formers from schools around Malta visited the exhibition to see for themselves what opportunities in further education are available in Malta.

The setting up of MCAST was an excellent decision and more than 2,800 students have graduated from the college. The college has succeeded in filling in a lacuna in the education system and it has proved to be a lifesaver for many students who, on leaving secondary school, were faced with little choice in the past. Pre-MCAST, students had the option of either going to Higher Secondary or Sixth Form before proceeding to University or else move directly into the labour market.

MCAST has now given the opportunity to students, who for various reasons were not, in the traditional academic sense, up to scratch and would never have made the grade in tertiary education, to pursue their studies. There are a lot of students who are more than capable of excelling in non-traditional subjects such as art and design, in car mechanics, electronics and so on. The college provides such training and much more. MCAST is constantly improving the courses it has on offer and tries as much as possible to give students an all round education.

For instance, instead of focusing solely on the subject required to become a certified car mechanic, they are also given intensive courses in basic skills, maths, English and Maltese. In business, for example, they are taught skills that you will not find in textbooks. All this has helped to create a pool of skilled workers in sectors that have, in the past, been occupied by individuals who had no formal training.

While MCAST has been a success story all round, the vocational training sector is lacking one very essential foundation: a framework to accredit these courses. The idea to establish a vocational qualifications framework was mooted a number of years ago but the going has been extremely slow. This has created problems for private sector training providers and also MCAST.

Students are leaving the college or private education institution with a qualification but are unable to show what level of study they have achieved. If the vocational framework were in place, courses would be ‘graded’ against established guidelines, hence making it easier for employers to know what applicants have studied and to what extent.

In an interview with this paper, the president of the Malta Association of Private Training Providers (MAPTP) said its members were frustrated that their courses were not accredited because this framework did not exist. It is even more frustrating for students who spend a lot of money only to be told that the course is not accredited.

The European Union is actively pursuing the concept of a framework for vocational qualifications and has established an eight-point scale to certify courses. Locally, a framework incorporating the first five is being discussed; however few details have emerged and no one knows what the timeframe for its implementation is.

We encourage the government, in particular the Education Ministry, to speed up the process. MCAST’s success has proved the critics wrong time and again and now is the time for the government to implement a framework for vocational qualifications. It is, in our view, of utmost importance because it not only gives credibility to the courses offered by training providers but it puts students’ minds at rest that they have not wasted their time and money.

It will also be feather in the government’s cap and another step towards fulfilling its promises to make Malta’s education system one to be proud of.