The Employment and Training Corporation has held a seminar for employers in the sector of information and communication technology, aimed at providing them with information on the European job mobility portal – Eures (European Employment Services).
Themed Helping you resolve your shortages, the seminar provided the space for ETC officers to discuss difficulties faced by employers in the ICT sector.
Competitiveness and Communications Minister Censu Galea delivered the opening speech at the seminar, saying a number of new ICT related courses were now on offer at the University of Malta and the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST).
Moreover, the government has also been providing financial support to students wishing to follow courses in ICT.
“These efforts are all intended to increase the supply of ICT specialists, particularly when you consider the fast-moving world of telecommunications,” said Mr Galea, adding that it was extremely important to improve the country’s competitive edge in this regard.
Speaking about the SmartCity Malta project, he said it was not a target in itself, but thousands of employment opportunities would be made available and it was important to train enough people in the ICT field.
Through the ETC, the government wanted to encourage more and more young people to further their studies by means of the various EU-funded and other courses on offer.
“The telecommunications sector has developed in such a way that it also created a number of job opportunities related to the financial services sector, so we all need to be aware of any such developments in order to make sure we are well prepared.”
Raphael Scerri, senior manager of ETC’s employment services department, gave a presentation of ways in which Eures can help, while the corporation’s EU affairs manager gave details regarding work permit procedures when employing EU citizens.
Eures is the European job mobility portal, which makes it easier to find information on jobs and learning opportunities in other European countries.
It brings together the European Commission and the public employment services of EU member States and Switzerland, along with other regional and national bodies concerned with employment issues, such as trade unions, employers’ organisations and regional authorities.
It provides information, advice and job-matching services – allowing jobseekers to find work and employers recruit across 29 European countries. It is designed to help make the right to live and work in any of these countries, a reality.
The Eures Malta job mobility portal, which was launched just recently, is accessible at www.
euresmalta.com. Further information may be obtained by calling freephone tel. 8007-6505 or by sending an email to [email protected].