MEP Simon Busuttil praised the manner in which the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology is making the most out of the opportunities of EU membership.

“MCAST is being extremely successful in absorbing a large amount of EU funding, thereby giving a future for thousands of youths who chose not to go to university,” Dr Busuttil said during a visit to the college.

During a meeting with MCAST representatives led by Paul A. Attard, president of the board of governors and Frank Edwards, principal/CEO Dr Busuttil was informed about how the college managed to absorb almost E4 million in EU structural funds in the first three years of Malta’s EU membership. These projects were at an advanced stage of implementation and concrete results were already in hand.

Through EU funding, MCAST managed to train 1,500 students and gave the opportunity to another 200 students to benefit from vocational exchanges through the EU programme Leonardo da Vinci. EU funding also helped 100 MCAST employees to improve their working standards.

Mr Edwards explained how, this year, preparations were underway to invest another E7 million in equipment that was necessary in different college institutes.

Moreover, the Education Ministry was also investing another E7.6 million over a period of just two years on upgrading as many as 121 science laboratories in secondary schools.