Towards a better education-business partnership

Abstract

The business community often complains that it is becoming more difficult to find suitably qualified workers. At the same time, the number of students leaving the educational system with some form of certification is increasing. What is required is a way of bridging the gap between education and the world of work. One way of doing this is by creating education-business partnerships. The aim of this study was to establish the opinion of the stakeholders regarding the present state of affairs in this area, to establish what type of partnerships exist, how are they formed and the difficulties involved. The data was mainly collecte through a questionnaire sent to all heads of schools in Malta and Gozo. Supporting data was collected from an interview and a news paper scan. The results show that in general, all the stakeholders agree that education and buisness can work closer together and that the educational system is not providing suitably qualified workers, at least in particular sectors. The main type of partnership activity involves school visits and talks by buisness people to students. It is not easy for schools to enter into partnerships because of the time constraint due to the long syllabi and lack of support from the business community. However schools are ready to participate. Education and business can work together provided both sides share a common vision. It is suggested that the business community should become more proactive, seeking initiatives in collaboration with the educational authorities to organize long term meaningful collaborations which hopefully would help to bridge the gap between education and the world of work.