Work/education relationships in Malta and the concept of lifelong education

Abstract

The matter of the proper relationship of education to work is a complex one because it involves different possible permutations and because the socio-political and ideological stakes involved are usually high. The polar edges of the spectrum of possibilities are: (a) that there is no proper relationship between education and work; that education is for something else, not for work, (b) that education is for work, that the requirements of the labour market should primarily determine what is taught. For the sake of convenience one can label the first a theory of classical liberalism (under-pinned by the view that education has to do with the transmission of knowledge which is intrinsically valuable), and the second a theory of utilitarianism or instrumentalism.