eSkills Malta Foundation, in cooperation with National School Support Services within the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation, organised a school visit campaign spread over the past scholastic semester.

The aim of the campaign is to provide students from secondary public schools with an experience, of a real-life work environment that entices them to select and pursue studies in the digital area to build a career in the digital sector.

To this end, eSkills Malta Foundation leveraged its partner base in order to organise and coordinate the campaign and get onboard the necessary number of organisations.

Each of the company visits consisted of an introduction of the business activity provided to the students by key representatives within the organisation, followed by a tour of the premises. While on the tour the students were provided with details of various roles within the organisation and how they could one day select one such role to start a career with the organisation.

Additionally, several companies also organised an interactive activity in order to engage the students. These activities included quizzes, games and mini workshops to name but a few.  A representative from eSkills Malta Foundation also delivered a talk to the students, that included information on possible roles and areas of specialisation that the students can peruse in order to integrate in the digital workforce, with examples taken from the specific context of the organisation of the visit. Each visit consisted of approximately 20 students coming from various colleges from around the island. Judging by how the students engaged during the sessions as well as from the feedback provided by the teachers it seems clear that students will remember these visits for some time and that they will be attracted to eventually work in this sector.

The foundation wishes to thank all the industry partners that have contributed significant time and effort for this year's campaign namely Malta Information Technology Agency, APS Bank, Ernst and Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Cleverbit Software, KPMG, Smart Technologies Limited and RS2 Software. Surely the success of this campaign can be attributed to the effort and dedication of all the teams involved in these visits.

eSkills Foundation Malta Foundation is committed to organising and participating in similar future initiatives in order to further enhance the digital direction of the national workforce.

 

Johann Mifsud is an Executive at eSkills Malta Foundation