The Employment & Training Corporation has recently launched a new ESF initiative entitled ‘Employability Programme’. The programme makes a significant improvement to human capital investment, through a range of inclusive training programmes and other initiatives that help ETC to align its provision to new and emerging labour market needs. As always, ETC's overall objective in this programme is to promote the reintegration of job seekers and inactive workers into the labour market, and to assist those in employment to progress further.

The ‘Employability Programme’ has many components, and a principal one is training in basic skills. This is one of the primary functions of the Corporation, as a significant percentage of ETC clients do not have qualifications and/or have limited skills. Achieving key competencies is crucial to finding and keeping a job. Clients participating in this training will receive certification, as well as gaining access to information and the possibility to participate in further learning with better employment prospects.

Besides providing basic skills the ‘Employability Programme’ will also include a variety of work orientation training initiatives and re-training programmes. These will be driven by real labour market needs; participants will be provided with knowledge and skills required for particular occupations and will obtain certification.

ETC is also collaborating with a range of stakeholders in order to reach out to those already in employment and encourage them to strengthen their skills profile. Various employers have indicated their willingness to support training initiatives currently being organised by the Corporation, which would benefit their employees.

One such entity is Playmobil Malta Ltd. The ETC has teamed up with this company and will be providing training to employees in Operative and Setter grades. Planned programmes include English and Maltese, Mathematics, Computer Literacy and ECDL. Other programmes in technical areas will also be offered at a later stage. Training will be voluntary and employees can apply for one or more of the courses that will be offered. So far the programmes have been very well received as more than 400 applications were submitted by 273 employees. Playmobil has set up a scheme which is being called the WE Learn initiative where employees in certain grades have been individually approached and offered the possibility to apply for one or more of the courses on offer. The response has been extremely encouraging.

Playmobil has also improved its training facilities, adding two new classrooms to its existing training rooms, as well as a fully equipped Computer Training centre already used for ECDL training of Playmobil employees. Playmobil prides itself on its commitment to corporate social responsibility and believes that the continuous development of its employees – in operational skills but also in key competencies such as literacy and numeracy – is an important part of this commitment.