Today’s students are tomorrow’s workforce
2 March marked the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Mita Student Placement programme. This programme is a means for government to facilitate the creation of temporary work opportunities for students in the ICT sector.
During his address at the launch of the programme, parliamentary secretary Silvio Schembri reconfirmed government’s full backing of this programme and the importance that it has for our youths.
The importance of programmes such as The Student Placement programme is proof of government’s commitment to enable our youths not only with a sound academic background, but also with the confidence to enter the workforce knowing that they are fully prepared to meet the challenges of the workplace today.
This preparedness can only be achieved, however, if we are able to build on the academic prowess of our youths and help them to develop the necessary soft skills such as Communication, Critical thinking, Problem solving and Team-building which are also a much-needed reality in the working environment of today.
Schembri also stated that these skills and others like them cannot be taught in a classroom environment, but are rather adopted through exposure, implementation of best practise in the work- ing environment and force of habit.
The parliamentary secretary also said that due to the many changes in the globalisation of the world around us, we are forging new and exciting challenges. He also said that this is a reality which does not affect a single sector within industry, but is true to all sectors within business. It is for this reason, that he stressed the importance of the need to invest in today’s youths through programmes of this kind, because these very students are the promise of tomorrow’s workforce.
Mita’s executive chairman, Tony Sultana also addressed the press conference. He also reinforced the importance government places in providing opportunities for today’s youths and future workforce, all the while firmly developing a stronger vision of a Digital Malta.
He also stated that in the last four years, through this programme, Mita, together with its employer partners in all sectors has been able to offer over 1,300 placements which have provided meaningful exposure to the ICT and ICT using industry. This in effect, translates to an investment of over €1.9m.
Furthermore, he stated that given last year’s successful placement of 332 students ( 60% of applicants), this year Mita has set an ambitious target of 400 placements. This will be obtainable through the constant support of employer partners from private industry, public service/public sector and NGOs.
Concluding his address, he also explained that this opportunity is not exclusively open to those businesses which are directly linked to the use of ICT, but also to those who use ICT in the dayto-day running of their business such as education, tourism, health and manufacturing sectors.
Jacquie Cremona Crossey, who is the Project leader of the Student Placement programme, also highlighted salient points about the programme during her presentation and provided an overview of the project’s mechanics.