Utilising big data to improve Malta’s workforce

Abstract

The Era of Big Data has begun – data sets have been increasing exponentially in size and complexity, making them more worthwhile to capture and explore because of their relation to other data. The aim of this research was to explore the challenges and opportunities of how big data can be exploited to improve the employability of Malta’s workforce and fulfil its educational needs. With the use of datasets of Malta’s workforce one holds the key for a superior workforce. This can be done by developing the workforce through the use of courses aimed to increase learning and improve skills, and by assisting in job searching. Through the utilisation of data mining techniques on particular data sources, an intelligent solutions was developed that suggests relevant work opportunities and training to the individual. This ensures individuals searching for employment and training have the relevant information in order to increase their value in their respective industry. Case studies on how governmental agencies and private corporations worldwide have utilised big data to improve their services, focusing more on cases in the public sector. Research was performed on ETC in order to investigate the agency’s goals, current way of working and to analyse how the utilisation of big data could improve the service offered. Various data mining techniques were researched and evaluated. The candidate solution was then designed based on the user, business and system goals and needs. A prototype was developed incorporating a subset of the functionality that the candidate solution offers. This was an iterative process where the prototype was developed and tested by the users. The candidate solution was evaluated by MITA as Malta’s National IT Agency, and the prototype was evaluated by the domain expert, ETC. It was concluded that the fact that big data could improve the service drastically through more work opportunities and training courses and more accurate analysis, it should be considered and implemented. This is because the benefits of using big data in this scenario can outweigh its drawbacks. As the analysis of this research’s findings concludes, if the benefits of utilising such data outweigh these issues, society is more likely to tolerate them and accept them.