Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/257374
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 9 FEBRUARY 2014 Opinion 22 Either because of a wrong work ethic; we have to be honest and blunt and not spoil our young people. It is not acceptable to have 9,000 jobs on the market that can be taken by the 7,000 registering for work and then we have 350 applying for pump attendants when posts available are only three; on the other hand, the country had to import workers from overseas for work that can be done locally. We have to cultivate these values and work ethic from a very early age as early as primary school; it is too late to address this problem when young people are seventeen years old. We need both rights and responsibility. We need to work with business to cultivate a spirit of entrepreneurship among our young people to be ready to start up their own business. We need to address skills gaps and mismatches. I talk to employers who tell me that they are ready to employ people as long as they match the skills. For every 10 iGaming posts only three are filled locally, the rest have to be sought from overseas. Young people need to know where employability opportunities are. Guidance teachers need to be informed and guide students accordingly. In terms of skills gaps, a current exercise is being done to identify gaps. CEDEFOP (the vocational education agency of the EU) have informed us that they are willing to help us identify the gaps and carry out several exercise namely on apprenticeship schemes and to develop a vocational learning track for our secondary education. We cannot have young people starting school at 3, leaving at 16 with serious literacy and numeracy inadequacies. The real question is what are our students learning? We cannot accept a system where half of our fifth-formers leave secondary education without the necessary skills to get on in life. This results in us having the highest number of unskilled/low skilled people in the EU. This needs to be addressed in terms of making sure that the workforce has the right skills and work ethic to make our economy grow and prosper. Between the age 15-24, we have 51,000 people – 5,800 are neither in employment, nor in education or any kind of training. 26% are single/unmarried parents, 9.6% are short term unemployed, at least getting to job market, 9.8% are unemployed and addicted to long term benefits; 9.6% disabled and more needs to be done to get disabled young people to work, we invest in the early years of education and then after the age of 16 they are being abandoned with few or no opportunities, 44.6% are either depending on parents or in the black economy, unemployed and not registering. We need to work hard not to allow others to join this category and then also we must work to ensure that young people on unemployment benefits need to go to work and stop dependability on benefits. The way forward is to retrain them. We will work hard to get them into the labour market as it is the best way forward for them and country. Evarist Bartolo is Minister for Education Subscribe to the e-paper Read the MaltaToday and MaltaToday midweek at 5am on the morning of publication on your Desktop, Tablet or Smartphone Subscribe now at www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/maltatodayepaper With an annual subscription you will get a FREE copy of your choice either Saviour Balzan's 'Saying It As It Is' or 'GourmetToday 100 best recipes' worth over €20 Subscription options 1 edition: €0.80 3 months: €15.00 MaltaToday and MaltaToday Midweek 6 months: €28.00 MaltaToday and MaltaToday Midweek 12 months: €50.00 + FREE BOOK *best value* Linking education to employment >> People in education tend to be defensive and easily offended when we are accused of not developing people with the right skills