Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/349229
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 JULY 2014 Opinion 22 Is the Circular Economy just hype? Raising the profile of vocational education Leo Brincat Evarist Bartolo T he answer to the question "Is the Circular Economy just hype?" is definitely not. But, and this is an important 'but', it all depends on our collective political will to move in that direction: on a national level, a European level and even on a global level. Returning as I have just done from the first Informal Environment Ministerial Meeting under the Italian EU Presidency in Milan, I was able to further reinforce my long held view that green growth, rather than being a challenge to the existing labour market, is an opportunity for new jobs as well as for a modal shift and a transition in the way in which we think, plan and act. While the economic crisis that Europe went through almost crippled a number of countries, it also pushed forward an urgent need for a re-thinking of economic policies, spurring many recovery plans adopted nationally in many countries to go for measures that enabled and facilitated more sustainable economic growth through the inclusion of various robust green initiatives. Nevertheless we need to continue stepping up our efforts to ensure further mainstreaming of such new thinking into our economic policy coordination and planning. If well thought out higher recycling targets in themselves can prove to be ideal instruments to drive the transition to a Circular Economy by way of new jobs and sustainable growth. In doing so we, and by we I mean Europe in general too, can render ourselves more competitive by reducing demand for costly scarce resources. The move to a more circular economy has been triggered by the fact that as things stand they might be too linear. To facilitate a deeper understanding of what one could have in mind the solution is simple. Instead of extracting raw materials, using them once and throwing them away, the new vision is for a completely different economic model. In a circular economy, re-use, repair and recycling become the norm. Consequently waste itself can easily become a thing of the past. If we manage to keep materials in productive use for a longer period, actually re-using them, and apply more efficient approaches to the ways in which we do so, it would also help Europe itself improve its competitiveness on the global stage. The development and promotion of a circular economy will not happen overnight. The EU itself has long admitted that the policy framework for promoting it will need to be further developed over the coming years. Three major directives will definitely have to come into play at some particular stage. Mainly, the Waste Framework Directive, the Landfill Directive, and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. It is all down to a more integrated approach across various policy areas and levels. As a point of departure we must accept a priori one important fact and realization: that business as usual is not an option as well as that the growth path that many countries are following is not the right one even for Europe itself in the 21st century. One important milestone of the past was when Europe was bold enough to admit and realise that we simply had to make our objective that of decoupling growth from resource use and its impacts. If we continue as some do both overseas and locally to look upon the environment as a constraint on O ver the years, especially in the last few decades, parents and policy makers have made great emphasis on the number of 'O' and 'A' levels that students managed to obtain. There has been a constant increase in the number of students reading for university degrees. Vocational qualifications seemed to have taken secondary importance but nowadays vocational education is changing its image. We need to get rid of the two-tier system and it is imperative that vocational education forms an important part of further and higher education. The fierce competition for jobs between highly qualified graduates often results in staff poaching. Yet, more and more people with traditional degrees but with a lesser amount of job skills, seem to struggle for meaningful employment. There are many jobs that are expected to drive economic growth and mobility in the future. Some of these will not necessarily require this traditional academic education pathway. Instead, the vocational path, which includes apprenticeships and on-the-job training, can open doors to an endless array of careers. The Edge Foundation, an independent education charity in the UK dedicated to raising the status of practical, technical and vocational learning, recently commissioned a report to investigate the changing landscape of the workforce in the next decade and predict the top jobs of the future. The report clearly highlights the need for vocational education and it estimates that 90% of these jobs will be attained through vocational qualifications. There are clear indications that the health sector and the construction industry will be among the top in-demand occupations. Jobs in IT and i-gaming will also be serious contributors to the employment market. Economic growth will drive expansion, but the greatest