The strength of a nation is measured in its ability to produce enough people to meet with its growing needs. The more it is able to understand the direction it is taking and planning to have enough people to take up the openings it will eventually create, the more it will flourish and progress.

This is more so in a country, such as Malta, where no natural resources exist, and the future is based simply on its human resources. Unless there are enough people to take up jobs that are created, and these people are competent enough to carry out these jobs in the best possible way, there is a risk that this country will not be able to compete.

We have heard the words “education” and “competitiveness” countless times over the past months and years, and this is because the Nationalist government has made it a point to invest heavily in both sectors. What we need to do more is mention the two words – or concepts – together more often, because one cannot do without the other.

Without a properly educated population, Malta will not be in a position to compete, and in a world that is becoming smaller every day and where other countries are emerging from difficult times and growing fast, in economic terms, it is easy for a small nation such as ours to find the going tough.

The government has invested heavily in education in the past years. Ever since taking office in 1987, the Nationalists have made it a point to make it easier for young people to study, and to further their studies as much as possible. The expansion of the University and the opening of the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology are the best examples of the importance that the government has always given to the sector.

But now we need to go a step further. While, of course, the country still needs to have its doctors, teachers, lawyers, architects and engineers, we must work harder to identify the areas in which Malta is expected to progress in the coming years, and prepare the people for such eventuality.

There are various sectors that the government is focusing on, such as the pharmaceutical industry, high-end manufacturing, tourism and information technology, sectors which the government intends to work on hard as it aims to reach the so-called Vision 2015. And this is why there needs to be a long-term plan to encourage more of our young people to prepare themselves for careers in such areas.

Educators, particularly those involved in guiding students towards careers they would like to pursue, need to be instructed on the policies and strategies the government is pushing hard upon so that they would be able to inform the students on the openings that they would be finding in four, five perhaps even 10 years down the line.

It is only through such an exercise that Malta will find itself better prepared to meet the demands for the future. It would be sad if hundreds, perhaps thousands, of jobs are created and there are not enough people to take them up. Of course, these vacancies can be filled up by foreign workers, but it would be much better if there are trained Maltese personnel to be employed.

While former Education Minister Louis Galea did a lot of work in overhauling the system through the setting up of colleges, his successor Dolores Cristina, while strengthening the whole spectrum of the education sector, should give more attention to directing students towards the areas that will, in the future, require more and more human resources.

And this should be done sooner, rather than later, because the future will be with us in no time.