The Kummissjoni Nazzjonali Persuni b'Dizabilità (KNPD), University of Malta and MCAST have been cooperating in APT-Leonardo – Access to Professional Training for Disabled Persons, a pilot project funded by EU programme Leonardo da Vinci.

Aims of the project included encouraging and supporting disabled persons to undertake University and third-level courses in social work, social policy, youth studies and social care and developing a learning approach which will serve as a model of good practice and go to enable the provision of such support and empowerment to spread throughout all levels of the University, MCAST and third-level courses.

The University of Malta, KNPD and MCAST were committed to:

• Giving, through the Department of Social Policy and Social Work, a preparatory APT course to persons with disabilities or social disadvantage who intend to apply soon to join social work related courses, to help them overcome disadvantages that may accumulate as a result of their disability

• Supporting each participant through a student mentor for the duration of the preparatory APT course (February-May 2007)

• Preparing existing University students (in the first semester of 2006/2007) to act as mentors by encouraging, training and matching them with the mentee students that they will support; preparing MCAST existing Social Care students to act as mentors to APT students.

• Working for this approach to permeate to other courses and faculties at a later stage; working in partnership with MCAST so that prospective students with disability can be similarly helped to join their social care course and subsequently other courses also on offer.

A steering committee was appointed to run this project to deal with all the necessary preparations for this course, meet the targets of the project and look into the possibility of embedding and mainstreaming this course to other entities. The cooperation has been extended to the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology.