GAMING INDUSTRY

European Gaming Institute Malta launched

The European Gaming Institute of Malta was officially launched yesterday at the offices of the Malta Gaming Authority at Smart City.

EGIM was launched through an official signing of an agreement between the Malta Gaming Authority and MCAST. The agreement will formally set up a course at MCAST which will help prepare students for work in the gaming industry.

Education and Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo, in his short speech, said that a good education needs to make a proper difference in the real life. “Education needs to prepare students and provide them with the proper competences for work in real life,” he said.

He said that the country needed to address the problems in skills gap, but added that the agreement did not mean to serve only as the starting point of a new course. “We need to make sure that the course delivery and the curriculum are properly set in place.” He said that a certificate with no skills was an empty piece of paper. “But I would rather have skills without a certificate and not vice-versa.”

Parliamentary Secretary for Gaming Silvio Schembri said that EGIM had been one of his first priorities when he took over office. He said that the government intended to address the shortage in the gaming industry – more than 6,000 of the 8,000 workers in the industry are foreigners. He said this is not a bad thing but he would like to have more Maltese citizens involved, especially since the industry offers wellpaid jobs. “What we need is to invest more in local human resources,” he concluded.

The gaming industry already provides more than 12% of the local GDP growth, PS Schembri said, equivalent to €560 million. It has recently become the third largest economic pillar in Malta.

President of the MCAST board Silvio Debono said that Malta has limited resources and the need for collaboration was all the pressing as a result. He announced that in the coming months MCAST will also be able to provide a master’s programme in gaming and data analytics.

Joseph Cuschieri, the Malta Gaming Authority chairman, said that EGIM had first been announced in the 2015 budget. He said that the gaming institute was aimed at addressing the shortage of workers in the local gaming industry. “We know MCAST has the necessary resources and the know-how to provide such a course.”