Five hundred and twenty-two participants were awarded certificates after completing one of the several re-skilling courses offered by MCAST with European Social Fund financing. The ESF courses include foundation and re-skilling courses aimed at mature persons wishing to return to the workforce or interested in further developing and upgrading their skills.
A main benefit of these courses is that adults are provided with the opportunity to upgrade or further develop both knowledge and skills that are appropriate for the labour market. As these courses are part-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) MCAST was able to offer these courses free of charge. Furthermore, for the majority of courses, participants are given the opportunity to achieve an internationally recognised qualification.
The Award Ceremony was held on two days with 251 participants receiving their certificates on Wednesday and 271 participants receiving certificates yesterday. On Wednesday, the participants who received their certificates had completed courses (ESF11) Preservation of Traditional Maltese Crafts; (ESF 12) Re-skilling and Retraining of Workers for Mechanical Engineering Industry and (ESF 13) Reskilling and Retraining of Workers for the Electronics Industry. Today’s participants have completed: (ESF 14) Employability Skills for Women Returning to the Workforce; (ESF 15) Reskilling and Retraining of workers for the Building and Construction Industry and (ESF 16) Foundation Training Programme for Adults. Courses were held between 2006 and 2007.
Speaking at the award ceremony, Education Minister Louis Galea said that it was of great satisfaction to see such a large number of adults taking the initiative to continue to train and improve their skills and capabilities. Dr Galea said that in the last few years and even in this week we have seen the effects of the changing economic scenario which is seeing the textile and other similar manufacturing sectors, re-locate to other countries where labour is cheaper.
On the other hand there are other sectors in which our country is developing fast and this is very normal for any dynamic economy. Certain negative effects cannot be avoided but what can be avoided is that our workers end up unemployed because of lack of skills. Each and every one of us needs to continue to learn throughout our lives to ensure that at any point in time we will have a good set of skills, competences and knowledge that makes us a valuable human resource that attracts investment and economic growth.