Forty-five proposals were submitted for the 2006 Call for Mobility Proposals, of which 18 were approved and funding worth EURO488,277.78 awarded. A total of EURO1,044,427.00 was requested in funding.

This makes 2006 the most successful year ever for the Leonardo da Vinci National Agency within the European Union Programmes Unit (EUPU) with regard to the amount of funding being awarded.

A contract-signing ceremony for the approved projects was held last week.

Education, Youth and Employment Minister Dr Louis Galea spoke about how important it was to disseminate the good results achieved by the EUPU in order to ensure that these EU educational programmes reach the “hard-to-reach” groups.

Parliamentary secretary Edwin Vassallo, permanent secretary in the Investment and Competitiveness Ministry Marcel Pizzuto and MCAST Principal Frank Edwards were also at the ceremony.

Three projects from the Parliamentary Secretariat for Small Businesses and the Self-Employed were approved.

These amount to a total of 211 beneficiaries, ranging from MCAST students wanting to improve their entrepreneurial skills and employees from local SMEs wanting to improve their competitiveness and adaptability to current labour market demands.

The total funding for these projects is EURO236,940.

The other approved projects cover a wide range of vocational training aimed at people employed in various sectors. These include dog-handling for search and rescue purposes submitted by the Malta Red Cross – Gozo Branch, airport handling, mental health, training for future psychologists.

Another project worth mentioning is that from the Speech and Language Department that aims to offer an international experience to its employees – incidentally, the department’s third project in three years.