The Employment and Training Corporation has developed a Work Trial Scheme through which companies are given the opportunity to evaluate a potential employee prior to the actual recruitment.

ETC places job-seekers with companies for 12 weeks. It issues a grant of 50 per cent of the minimum wage per week for the whole period during which the company is required to offer potential employees work for 20 hours per week.

Job-seekers benefit directly from practical work experience as well as the opportunity to upgrade their skills in line with the needs of the labour market. The job-seeker will be made aware of the responsibilities and requirements of the particular post and work environment. The company will be able to train and mould a potential employee before actual recruitment in the ethos of the organisation.

The scheme is open to job-seekers aged between 16 and 24 who have never worked or have work experience not in line with their job preference: graduates and other people who have completed their studies and never worked in the field of their studies; people who have not worked in the past year; registered job-seekers aged 25 and over who have been unemployed for at least six months and people who have recently been made redundant.

Companies that have had no redundancies in the six months before their application for the scheme are eligible and each company can take on up to four jobseekers per year.

More information on the Work Trial Scheme is available on the ETC website www.etc.gov.mt, Employment Schemes section, or by sending an email to [email protected]