Bernadette Zerafa

During 2017, the eSkills Malta Foundation has continued with its highly valued work in its journey to decrease the digital skills gap by contributing to policy, the digital education community, the development of the ICT profession, skills in the workforce and society. Various initiatives carried out in 2017 served to increase awareness of the skills aspect of the digital ecosystem. These included career sessions for secondary school students; training to guidance teachers and careers advisors in the educational arena; together with a Career Exposure Week. The Foundation maintained a regular engagement with state, independent and Church educational institutions. It also coordinated and mentored a highly successful EU Code Week, an IT Professionals Day and industry visits by teachers and students.

The Foundation is looking forward to 2018 which will undoubtedly be a very challenging and successful year. This success will be brought about by the delivery of a program of events and communications activities. Here are some of the important initiatives carried out by the Foundation during 2017.

Malta’s National Coalition

The eSkills Malta Foundation is Malta’s National Coalition. It brings together ICT and ICTusing companies; education and training providers; education and employment ministries; public and private employment services, associations, non-profit organizations and social partners, who develop concrete measures to deliver digital skills to all levels of society. During 2017, the Foundation continuously focused its energy specifically on areas such as training, raising awareness about ICT careers among young people and women, collaboration with the Ministry of Education amongst other things.

In April 2017, the eSkills Malta Foundation had the honor to host in Malta a workshop and progress meeting between national coalitions from most European countries. In practice, national coalitions identify organizations which can become members of the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalitions, commit to the Bratislava Declaration, and entice them to submit specific pledges on digital skills, and try to help them, in no uncertain way to achieve their aims. National coalitions also engage with governments and other stakeholders, with the aim of increasing the national digital skills. This is also the aim of the Foundation.

The IT Professionals Day

The IT Professionals Day is a celebration of the IT profession, which contributes something of value towards it. In 2017, Malta celebrated the IT Professionals Week through various events, targeting different groups, and collaborating with several partners.

On 24th April, the Foundation collaborated with Google and the National Skills Council for the launch of the Google Workshop training platform at the Hilton in Malta. Two days later, the Foundation launched the ICT Skills Audit 2017; a study that had been going on since the last quarter of the year before and which percolated into the launch in April. On the same day, another event based upon technology talks was organized in collaboration with the University of Malta, Ascent Software and Microsoft Malta.

In May, Dr Mark Micallef and Dr Chris Porter from the University of Malta, together with Ms Angelina Samaroo from the UK participated in an event during which they talked about Software Testing ideas and concepts. The events celebrating IT Professionals ended on 3rd May, with an important event aimed towards women in ICT.

In general, these celebrations about the IT professionals have been a success because various professionals and people within society are willing to make a conscious effort towards this beaming profession for a short period. This seems to give a boost to the IT profession and reminds us of its importance in society and the industry, and of the mostly unsung heroes that work in the IT profession.

Launch of the Malta ICT Skills Audit 2017 - Building Malta Tech Pipeline

In April, the Foundation launched the Malta ICT Skills Audit 2017. The Foundation is entrusted by Government with a number of mandates related to digital skills. These objectives are in-line with EU recommendations about the target areas that each EU country should focus on to improve the expansion of digital skills in the country. The Foundation presented to stakeholders the ICT Skills Audit 2017, which encompasses the skills required by the ICT Industry and the provision of education, car-