What is vocational education and training?

Discover your Talent!” is the motto for the European Vocational Skills Week 2018 taking place in Vienna this week from 5 to 9 November. Organised by the European Commission for the third consecutive year, it brings together education and training providers, civil society organisations, public authorities, business organisations and the broader public to raise the profile of Vocational Education and Training (VET).

As part of the Skills Week, hundreds of events and activities have been taking place in recent weeks across Europe, including Malta. National ambassadors are actively raising awareness on the campaign through events, media interviews and opinion pieces.

The aim is to show that VET is a smart choice, leading to excellence in education, high-quality jobs and increased employability. The campaign also focuses on adult learning, mobility in VET, sector skills cooperation, and business-VET partnerships. An additional focus this year will be on the future of VET in digitalisation, in empowering individuals for lifelong career management and skills development; in validation of nonformal and informal learning; in addressing the importance of 21st century skills; in assessing the role of VET leaders/teachers/trainers, and in recognising the internationalisation of VET.

Clearly, in today’s Malta, the dynamics of VET are no longer an education issue only but are also economic and well-being issues as well. By developing skills that are specific to a trade or job role, students can improve their employment prospects, employees get ahead in their current career, and in some instances, individuals can even turn a hobby into a business.

VET in Europe

• 49% of upper secondary students in Europe participate in upper secondary VET (2016) • The employment rate of recent VET graduates in Europe is 74.8% (2017) • The percentage of low-qualified adults in Europe has been reducing steadily thanks to the European Social Fund (ESF) assistance, but is still too high, at 22.5% (2017) • 10.9% of Europe’s population participates in adult learning (2017) ( source: Eurostat)

An old-fashioned view held by some people is that VET only covers practical, hands-on subjects like plumbing, con- tional education and training can also expect to learn a lot about themselves. An added bonus is that, in most cases, they discover talents they did not know they had.

Speaking from personal experience, vocational education and training courses are definitely worthwhile career choices. Through such courses, one will have the opportunity to discover an aptitude for a line of work, study related subjects, and work alongside studying that subject, and it can lead to future employment.

It is far from rare for VET students in Malta to discover that the prize for being VET diligent is to find, upon concluding their studies and training, a good job waiting for them in that same trade or profession they had chosen.

A final point. Statistics show that more than 96 per cent of Maltese students who complete a VET course find work immediately, so embarking on a VET course is a sound and advisable step forward. This percentage is actually the highest rate in this regard in the European Union.

I believe that the greatest satisfaction a VET graduate can get are the dignity and respect that a person continues to feel for many years after, not only on the job, but in his or her personal life as well.