The government’s work to help self-employed persons and owners of small businesses was focused on helping to create new jobs, while at the same time aiming to help the quality of goods and services provided to consumers, Edwin Vassallo, Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and the Self-Employed said during a visit to the Mosta industrial zone.

This work, which has cost around Lm3.5 million, has helped to improve the quality of the infrastructure and environment of the zones where a number of small business owners and their employees work, he added.

During the visit, a number of training schemes offered by the Employment and Training Corporation were announced.

Joe Cutajar, Senior Manager, Training Services Division in the ETC, gave information about two particular initiatives.

One includes a number of short but intensive business and management development training programmes specifically designed for entrepreneurs and/or owner managers of small- and medium-sized enterprises.

The other initiative promoted was the Training Subsidy Scheme (TSS), aimed to promote a learning culture among those working within small enterprises.

The scheme provides financial assistance to employees and owner managers when they participate in a training initiative to upgrade their level of knowledge and skills.

The subsidy covers 75 per cent of the training costs up to a maximum of Lm200.

Edwin Camilleri, in charge of research and labour market information, explained that the ETC would be carrying out a survey in these industrial zones.

The objective of the survey among small employers in industrial zones was basically to identify any shortage or skills gaps that these employers were facing or have been facing since the beginning of this year.

The ETC is interested in identifying these gaps both to assist these employers in training required for their staff as well as to train available job-seekers that would fit their needs.