Attracting back to the workplace skilled people

The Parliamentary Secretary responsible for economic growth and competitiveness, Dr José Herrera, while addressing an event organised by the Malta Foundation for eSkills and by Meusac, explained the importance of attracting back to the workplace people who have the skills, but who, for some reason, are not active in the labour sector. The Parliamentary Secretary explained how direction was being given on how to unlock the potential of people such as the elderly who are not in labour, but who have many skills to offer, particularly in the area of technology. He added that the purpose of this process is to get to a stage where the skills of these people can enrich the country’s resource base.

The e-Skills Malta Foundation is a coalition of various representatives coming from government, industry and education and the purpose is to advise government and stakeholders on the e-Skills policy.

Dr Herrera made reference to the Digital Scoreboard published by the European Union. The Parliamentary Secretary said that while Malta is doing well in certain aspects such as access to next-generation technology, in basic skills Malta is well below the average. This is particularly worrying, said the Parliamentary Secretary, since in 2020 it is estimated that 90% of new jobs will require digital skills.

Dr Herrera said employment in the ICT sector is increasing, however, he pointed out that lack of resources is limiting investment and growth. He also added that this means more costs for the Maltese firms to keep pace with competitors in other countries.

So to address these shortcoming he said that there is need to increase the availability of trained staff, attract people back into employment, as well as promote the better use of human resources. Initiatives such as Mita’s Student Placement Programmei nitiative or MCA’s Project Enter-programme were only two examples of how government is addressing this problem.