Making VET more attractive and relevant to economic needs : are Spanish policies applicable to Malta?

Abstract

Over the past years, Malta had a lower rate of unemployment than the EU-27 average. In 2008, the unemployment rate in Malta stood at 5.9 %, compared to 11.3% in Spain and 7.0% in the EU-27. Eurostat figures indicate that in 2007, the unemployment rate of persons in Malta between 25 and 64 years with ISCED levels 0-2 was 6.7%, significantly lower than that in Spain and the EU-27 (9.0 % and 9.2 % respectively). Comparable figures for unemployed persons in Malta with ISCED levels of 3-4 and 5-6 are unavailable, probably due to the small sample size. However, one can get an idea of the situation by examining data derived from the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC), Malta‟s public employment service organisation, and published by the National Statistics Office. The percentage of registered unemployed seeking technical occupations out of the total number of registered unemployed stood at 9.4 % in January 2008 (NSO Website). While this signified an increase of 5.5 percentage points over January 2004 (3.9 %), the number in real terms remained rather low. The percentage of persons seeking professional or managerial occupations increased in a similar fashion, from 2.5 % to 7.8 % during the same period. Overall, persons with ISCED levels 3-4 and 5-6 do not appear to experience particular difficulties in finding employment. It is also evident that having a technical education pays, as this category of workers earn more (around 7.6% in Q3 2007 according to NSO figures) than the average worker. One should note that the relatively low unemployment figures hide the fact that Malta has the highest inactivity rate among all the EU-27 states. This phenomenon is due to a low participation of women in employment. Inactivity is most strongly associated with older women with lower levels of formal education. Besides, as will be viewed below, there also exists a strong gender imbalance in participation in post-secondary and tertiary education in Malta. [Excerpt]