News Layoffs in ELT sector confirm government measures not enough to secure employment
Latest study confirms 20,000 cancellations to date
Feltom, the Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations in Malta is in total agreement with the position taken by MHRA and the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry which stated that the measures announced by government will do very little to save jobs.
“As such, Feltom’s position remains unequivocally clear: the measures announced by government will not protect employment and this is something which we are already confirming since a number of English language schools have already started closing and laying off their staff,” says Feltom.
The ELT sector was the first to start feeling the effects of this pandemic, effects that were confirmed by a Deloitte survey commissioned by Feltom in the first week of March which described the situation as “the perfect storm” for all English language teaching organisations.
A second study published by Deloitte and presented last week, shows how to date, the number of cancellations has increased from 4,000 student arrivals as at 5 March to 20,000 student arrival cancellations as at 16 March. These figures are equivalent to 7,500 cancellations per week across all the schools, an increase of 400%.
The financial impact of these cancellations to date, is expected to lead to an estimated loss in contribution of €8.8m and an estimated financial loss to the economy of €23.7m.
“Amid this scenario, our prime concern is the staff and the schools who are the pillars of Malta’s successful and thriving ELT sector, a sector that has always been an important contributor to Malta’s tourism industry and the economy at large,” says Feltom.
Feltom also appealed to the banks to be more responsive to their clients’ communications especially in the light of the fact that government’s measures are not official and there have been no instructions or legal notices to banks on how these measures can be taken advantage of.
“ELT schools, just like most other sectors, are now in very dire straits and people are being put on forced leave. We need proper and serious measures to safeguard all employees on whose expertise, this successful sector has been built,” concluded Feltom.