MCAST organises Europea’s General Assembly

On Wednesday, 26 April the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology organised Europea’s General Assembly as part of Malta’s EU Council Presidency.

The event took place at Hilltop Gardens in Naxxar. The theme of this General Assembly was Vocational education and international exchanges: Keys for enhancing value-added and small-scale food production.

The programme of the General Assembly included knowledge exchange on vital developments in the green sector, didactical and pedagogical issues. Various topics were discussed such as the preparation of students for jobs in the green sector and the quality and appropriateness of the skills and knowledge that they are acquiring.

The event was opened by Dr Silvio De Bono, president of MCAST Board of Governors. Noel Azzopardi, director of the Diversification and Competitiveness Directorate addressed the audience and spoke about the Maltese Agricultural scene. Tonio Pace, director of the MCAST Institute of Applied Sciences and Malcolm Borg, National coordinator Europea Malta, also addressed the audience and spoke about MCAST’s role in the provision of vocational education.

Europea is an international non- profit association working for the development of vocational education and training in the green sector of Europe. This sector covers a wide field of professions within agriculture, horticulture and forestry. It seeks to stimulate training and exchange of agricultural and land-based students, teachers and staff members, promote partnership between the professional world and agricultural and landbased education and advisory centres, provide a platform for exchange of project products and of knowledge. Moreover, it encourages student competitions, facilitate intercultural exchanges, promote continuous education, support the development of thematic cooperation between members and study and disseminate results and knowledge regarding changes in the agricultural and land-based world.

Europea is made up of a network in each represented country which generally consists of a number of sector-related vocational colleges that come together to discuss matters related to training and pedagogy in the green sector. At present, Europea organises 24 national Europea networks, which represent more than 1,000 vocational schools and institutions all over Europe.