Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1510993
THIS week the government an- nounced a new scheme which is due to start next year: non-EU workers in hotels, bars and res- taurants will need to get a skills card to work in the tourism sec- tor. This means they will need to pass an initial skills card as- sessment before their visa and work permit applications can be processed. The course includes "an Eng- lish language proficiency test and basic courses in customer care, hospitality and what Mal- ta offers tourists". It was stat- ed that these prospective eco- nomic migrants have to follow the training course while still in their home country, but the specifics of how this will actu- ally work in practice were not spelled out. This course will be followed by an online assess- ment and a pass mark is re- quired for their application for a work permit to be processed by Identity Malta (which for some mysterious reason has been re-branded as Identità). Of course, as always, there is someone out there who will be making money out of this scheme and it will be interest- ing to know who will win this contract, since I am presum- ing that it has to be a standard course. The Tourism Minister was quoted as saying that the mandatory training course and assessment will cost €450, fol- lowed by an additional €125 for an in-person assessment once they reach Malta. On the face of it, this seems like a good plan, but on the oth- er hand it is also an admission of abject failure on the part of the authorities and the entire economic model. The imme- diate very obvious question is: why was this not done from the get go? Why is it always a management by crisis sce- nario, where several summers have gone by during which the tourism market is clear- ly suffering from the strain of having to train completely un- qualified and unskilled work- ers on the job, while the work- ers themselves are struggling with simultaneously grappling with a new language and a new culture while learning how to work in the very challenging environment of hospitality and customer care? How on earth can you plonk people who have never worked in the industry before into these situations and expect a positive outcome? Working in hospitality and catering is probably one of the most difficult job sectors I can think of. The hours are long, and you can forget weekends and special occasions such as Christmas and New Year's be- cause that is when they are the busiest. It is no wonder that so many young Maltese people simply do not want to work in these fields because they re- quire discipline, stamina and commitment. The low pay being offered is also a deterrent, although this is denied by employers who claim that no matter how much they are paid, Maltese people simply do not want these jobs. Having to deal with all sort of customers can also represent a stumbling block because not everyone has the right temperament to remain cool, calm and collected in the face of even the most obnox- ious patron. As we all know, the quali- ty of service and handling of customers can be very erratic. In too many instances, there seems to be a sort of barely concealed resentment at work- ing in a field where one is serv- ing others, unlike places such as Italy, where even a waiter in a tiny cafe will treat you like royalty and is effusive with his welcoming attitude and im- peccable manners. There are also undeniable poor management issues; if one is treated abysmally by one's boss, forced to work unreasonably long shifts and without adequate compensa- tion or respect, then it is not surprising that the ill feeling is transmitted on to the hapless customer who ends up being at the receiving end of a very disgruntled employee. On the other hand, some- times the surliness and down- right rudeness we regularly come across in cafes, restau- rants and shops cannot be sim- ply attributed to being treated badly by the boss. Frankly, if we are going to make all these stipulations for foreign work- ers, I would think it would be best if we start with our home- grown failures in customer care across the board. When it comes to after sales, for ex- ample, the pendulum often ca- reens wildly between excellent experiences, and places where they just take your money and then stop answering the phone. Again, I think a wise manager would ensure to only employ staff with the right attitude and good people skills, oth- erwise it is simply a vicious revolving door of hiring and firing people. Another sali- ent point often mentioned by employers is the issue of staff who simply quit after being trained…is it my impression or has company loyalty become a rare commodity where people up and leave without a back- ward glance, even if they have been treated well? According to the Tourism Minister, the same skills card will be required for Maltese and EU nationals in the in- dustry by 2025… but why wait until then? I think the whole country could do with an im- mediate crash course in basic good manners and politeness because many are certainly not learning these things from home. Schools ideally should reinforce civilised and respect- ful behaviour but nothing re- places what children see with- in their own household which they mirror and mimic to a T. Just purely from my own ob- servations, I rarely find exam- ples of bratty children whose parents are polite, however, 9 times out of 10, if the kid is ar- rogant, you can be sure that ei- ther one or both of the parents is equally insufferable. The announcement of the basic skills course triggered another question in my mind - with all the bureaucracy in- volved, why doesn't the tour- ism sector just opt for EU na- tionals who are already trained in their field, who do not re- quire all the hassles of a work visa and residency documen- tation? Anyone who works in tourism in the EU is also less likely to have a language bar- rier because English is usually a prerequisite. And yet even as I write this, I can hazard a guess that the answer to this is: money. It is common knowledge that TCNs will accept working con- ditions and the type of income which are shockingly poor compared to what their EU counterparts would expect… or even accept. The astronom- ic rates for long let accommo- dation are also ensuring that EU nationals are now giving Malta a wide berth. So, as things stand, if the hir- ing of TCNs is to continue, we need to start going about this in another way. Rather than going through another layer of bureaucracy by luring un- skilled workers and then mak- ing them attend courses, why not just ensure that the only people who qualify to apply for work permits are TCNs who speak English and have the necessary skills in the first place? In other words, the first hur- dle to be able to enter Malta for work should come in the country of origin to stem the flow of people being brought here without the right skills. I realise this means the govern- ment will have to upset the re- cruitment agencies which will be making less money, but it will save a lot of headaches for employers, and will mean less heartache for TCNs who end up here without a job after be- ing scammed of thousands of Euro. As for the local employment market, it is often pointed out that a country's greatest re- source are its human resourc- es - but only if the right peo- ple are in the right jobs. If our tourism sector (just to name one industry) is crying out for staff who have been proper- ly trained so that tourists and locals alike have a positive ex- perience, then everything from our educational system to ca- reer guidance counsellors, to training schemes to JobsPlus should be working in tandem and geared towards matching people up to jobs for which they have the necessary quali- fications and aptitude. maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 NOVEMBER 2023 OPINION 5 Schools ideally should reinforce civilised and respectful behaviour but nothing replaces what children see within their own household which they mirror and mimic to a T Importing workers with the right skills - now, why didn't we think of that before? Josanne Cassar