The education ministry’s Malta Qualifications Council held a one-day conference on vocational qualifications and their link with the world of work. It was addressed by education minister Louis Galea and two foreign speakers, Tom Bain, from Scotland’s Qualifications Authority, and Loukas Zahilas, an expert of Cedefop, an EU agency for vocational education.

The idea behind the conference was for the social partners to discuss vocational qualifications in the context of life education. Dr Galea described vocational qualifications as an important means for the country’s competitiveness. The heavy investment by the government in the vocational sector was a clear message of the importance the government gave to the subject for economic development.

Vocational qualifications, he said, should be held as much in esteem as other academic qualifications in the educational sector. For the government, he said, education was the key to the success of the country in attracting investment, and this required quality education and training, apart from adequate structures.