Each and every one of us would like to go back to our younger days. Starting all over again, perhaps avoiding the mistakes we have made, is a common wish. Imagine being 18 years old again, but with the experience of an adult.

I get this feeling more and more when, year after year, the opportunities in the education sector increase. When I see the number of courses that are being offered by the University of Malta and the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology, I regret not being a teenager and being able to choose from so many options.

Recently, I received a copy of the prospectus for the 2010-2011 academic year published by MCAST. It was an incredible experience. It took me more than an hour to simply leaf through the countless possibilities there are for today’s young people to further their studies. Unless you go through it, you cannot know of the multitude of opportunities that exist. And I guess it will be the same at university, which is bursting at the seams too with the number of courses that keep growing every year.

Once the end-of-year examinations are over, I will sit down with my two teenage children to go through the MCAST prospectus together. They are still to

finish their secondary schooling, but I want them to start thinking about their future, and know about the myriad possibilities they have. Of course, I will open their eyes to what the university offers, as well.

When I was their age, I did not have any of this. I was one of the unlucky ones, one of those whose crucial teenage years fell right in the middle of the worst ever

crisis that we had in the education sector. In the early 1980s, those who wanted to

further their studies often found the door closed in their faces, and many gave up, as did I.

I finished my secondary schooling at St Aloysius College in 1983, and was forced to leave Church schooling to go to the state-run Junior Lyceum because the government of the time chose to discriminate between students who went to state schools and the rest by giving the former an advantage when it came to joining a university course.

My Sixth Form days were characterised by the trouble that grew between the government and the Church schools – the “b’xejn jew xejn” dispute, remember? – and the teachers’ strike at the start of the 1984-85 academic year, the year of my ‘A’ levels. At the time, we were more interested in politics than the classroom, and it was not the first time that the police made their presence felt on the school premises.

I did obtain the grades I needed, but when it then came to going to university, the choices were limited to a handful of courses. I could not even join the law course, which was my first preference, because there wasn’t one available – at the time, law courses opened on alternative years. The numerus clausus policy that was adopted at the time, as well as the few courses which were available, reduced the opportunities to a minimum. In spite of my willingness to continue my studies, I had to abandon my hopes and start working.

All this came flooding back to my mind when I was going through the MCAST prospectus and saw the range of options that today’s younger generation has. And I am writing it down for the benefit of those students who are thinking of leaving school, once they are no longer required to stay on.

They should think again. They should understand – or be made to understand – that now is the time to further their studies. A degree or a diploma is not just a piece of paper. It is a certificate that will make them proud for the rest of their life, and will open the way to obtaining a better job with better conditions. What they study today will never be lost. There will be plenty of time for work.

Individually, all those who further their studies stand to gain. And, as a country, Malta will also benefit if it “produces” more qualified people. We rely on human resources for our success, and the more qualified people we have, the more the country will be able to move forward and meet the challenging demands of today’s competitive world.

Foreign investors do not choose Malta because of its mild climate. They choose it because of its skilled workforce and employees who are able to adapt to different circumstances. They choose it because of its valid human resources.

Compared to the European Union average, we are still behind when it comes to the number of students who continue studying after the age of compulsory education. And yet Malta continues to attract projects such as SmartCity, the Corporate Village and the Sports Village. Imagine what this country will be able to do if more and more young people work for diploma courses or degrees.

This is what I will be telling my children when I sit down with them to leaf through the MCAST prospectus together. And this is what I tell the thousands of young people who are about to arrive at the crossroads and have to choose between continuing their studies and getting a job.

With the opportunities there are today, I would always choose the former.

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