Serving the labour market's future needs
by David Kelleher
The Employment and Training Corporation earlier this month marked its 10th anniversary, 10 years of providing extensive training to those seeking employment in the local labour market.
After 10 years of operations, the ETC decided to take stock of its operations and develop a draft business plan for the next three years. The following is an indepth look at what the ETC is proposing.
Over the next three years, the ETC aims to "promote equitable access to training and employment opportunities and to contribute towards the social and economic development of the community".
The ETC's chief executive John Camilleri, in a forward to the business plan, emphasises on the value of social inclusion, a policy that is used to guide the corporation as it strives to provide "equal access to training opportunities and to quality employment", which are both central to social inclusion
"The Employment and Training Corporation is government's instrument for promoting such access. We realise the growing necessity for lifelong learning and the centrality of work to the dignity of the human person, and wish to be of assistance to anyone requiring our services. We also realise the national significance of our role in seizing the opportunities that an evolving economy can offer. In this context, the Corporation contributes to national policy through providing government with useful labour market information and analysis," Mr Camilleri says.
Although this plan is not ETC's first attempt to develop strategy, he adds, it is novel in that it is our first three-year business plan, with a vision and objectives based on wide consultation within and outside our organisation.
The business plan indicates the following target areas:
to place ETC at the same level of effectiveness and efficiency as other Public Employment Services in Europe.
to strengthen the human resource potential of the Corporation, as we recognise that well-motivated and trained staff are the key to achieving success in any evolving organisation.
to examine our business processes very closely to ensure that they meet the needs and expectations of our clients. We will be dedicating an increasing proportion of our resources to active labour market measures, and developing a range of exciting new initiatives.
to maintain and strengthen our participation in the activities of the European Training Foundation.
"In a spirit of subsidiarity, we are actively developing partnerships with other organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to achieve our objectives," Mr Camilleri says.
The business plan is also meant to increase the transparency of the ETC's operations and provide opportunity for feedback and dialogue.
Government Policy on Employment and Training
Employment is fundamental to social inclusion and is at the centre of government's policy. Nothing can substitute economic growth as a source of job creation. However, government also believes in the need for a clear strategy to ensure that the workforce is able and willing to rise to new job opportunities.
This strategy must promote a culture of lifelong learning in the recognition that progressive economies are now based on knowledge and require a skilled and informed workforce.
The Employment and Training Corporation plays a strong role in increasing human capital in Malta today. It is doing this through contributing to the technical and technological upgrading of the workforce, and through a marked shift in focus towards active employment measures.
This shift in focus has come about through close reflection of our clients' needs. The government firmly believes that its services should respond to the requirements of its clients.
The Service
The ETC's main functions include:
Assisting jobseekers to find suitable employment
Assisting employers to find suitable employees
Registration of the unemployed
Career guidance and counselling for job seekers
Providing training services to persons seeking new jobs
Providing training to persons in employment who want to improve their knowledge and skills
Providing personalised assistance to persons from disadvantaged groups
Law enforcement
Night Institute for Further Technical Education
Apprenticeship schemes
Administering Training Grants under the Industrial Development Act
Occupational certification
Maintenance of labour market information
Our key clients are jobseekers, employers, government and persons in employment wishing to upgrade their skills. The Corporation caters for all persons seeking employment.
Business Plan
The key features of the Corporation's planning cycle are the issue of the business plan, in October of every third year, and the Annual Report, published soon after the end of the financial year.
The business plan contains an overview of labour market developments, a definition of the Corporation's objectives, and key activities to be undertaken during the business period. Annual reports provide an account of the Corporation's performance against the strategic objectives as identified in the business plan.
The plan an overview of the context within which the ETC operates, the Corporation's current and proposed initiatives, as well as its supporting services, and its mission, vision and strategic objectives for the coming business period. It also sets out key activities, and related target dates, for each of these objectives.
The business plan presents an overview of the context within which the Corporation operates and which it takes into account throughout its planning process.
The factors identified below were developed with the assistance of the FAS consultancy in early 2000.
The Maltese Context
Economic developments
The political and legal background
Public administration
Labour market trends
Equal opportunities
Technological development
Employment Policy in the European Union
Anti-discrimination regulations
EU employment guidelines
The European social fund
National training institution
project
Improving the comparability of statistics
Observing employment and training trends
The role of the social partners
National qualifications and certification system
Continuing vocational training and life-long learning
Early school leavers
Apprenticeship
Public-private partnership in training provision
The following is a brief outline of the corporation's activities that will be launched, and the support services that will make such operations possible.
Current Programmes
The Corporation's current programmes may, for ease of reference, be subdivided according to client group, that is, persons seeking employment; persons seeking to upgrade their skills; and employers.
Persons seeking employment
The Corporation helps jobseekers to find employment through the following services:
Maintaining a register of the unemployed
Offering career guidance and counselling
Providing training services
Offering placement services through vacancy/skill matching
Running the employment training placement scheme
Running apprenticeship schemes
Running the night institute for further technical education
Providing specialist and individualised attention to disadvantaged groups
Persons seeking to upgrade their skills
The Corporation also helps persons in employment who wish to upgrade their skills, through the following services:
Providing training services
Providing occupational certification
Running the night institute for further technical education
Employers
The Corporation assists employers in recruitment and retention of staff, in the following ways:
Assisting employers to find suitable employees
Administering industrial development act training grants
Ongoing monitoring of recruited persons with special needs
Subsidy of wages for persons on traineeships and training placements
Outreach Services
The Corporation also runs a number of initiatives with a broader focus, such as:
Organising a community work scheme for unemployed persons
Addressing school leavers about the labour market and the Corporation's services
Running the People Management and Satisfaction Award
Developing partnership agreements with organisations with research or project ideas in line with the Corporation's philosophy, remit and priorities.
New Initiatives
A number of new initiatives are to be launched during the business period under review. A brief overview of the aim and form of each initiative is given hereunder.
Job Start Youth Initiative
This programme is targeted at unemployed young persons. The aim is one of early and comprehensive intervention with young unemployed people in order to ensure that they do not become long-term unemployed. On reaching three months' unemployment, young persons will be offered an in-depth career information and advice interview.
They will be advised of current job opportunities or, if not yet work-ready, referred to other support services. ETC will also offer a 40-hour programme which includes training in job-seeking, CV preparation and IT awareness. Job Clubs will also be set up within ETC's Job Centres through which young people can utilise IT services to seek employment.
Traineeships
Traineeships involve formal, off-the-job training with real experience of working life.
The aim in providing traineeships is to offer the unemployed, particularly young persons, exposure to core competences and knowledge alongside the interpersonal skills and working attitudes at the workplace. Traineeships should also meet the real skills needs of the employing company.
Trainees will be employed by companies for a maximum of one year, during which time they receive at least the minimum wage. On its part, ETC will subsidise 25 per cent of the wage during this period and will also pay the full costs of off-the-job training. If trainees are from disadvantaged groups, ETC may subsidise up to 50 per cent of the wage.
Entrepreneurship
While an important factor in any successful economy, entrepreneurial start-up is not an easy option nor suitable for everyone. This initiative aims to facilitate a culture of entrepreneurship and to provide advice and training to prospective entrepreneurs.
ETC will provide a "start-your-own-business" training programme for persons whose business proposal shows potential. The training will comprise evening sessions on business planning. This will be accompanied by an advice/mentoring service to such new businesses for up to twelve months after the training programme.
Disadvantaged Groups
There is a social imperative to assist disadvantaged persons from specific target groups to return to the workforce. ETC can play an important role in the vocational guidance, training and employment support of diverse groups that face employment challenges, for instance, persons with disability, persons with mental health problems, persons who have had a substance abuse problem and persons leaving prison.
The ETC already provides services for these client groups, but intends to provide a broader and more integrated service. It is thus proposed to establish a specialist section within ETC that will offer a "one-stop-shop" service, comprising a multi-disciplinary assessment and a client-centred case-management approach.
The Long-Term Unemployed
The long-term unemployed, that is, those out of employment for over 12 months, often have great difficulty in re-entering the labour market - especially in view of the relatively faster growth of higher-skill level jobs in the service sector. The long-term unemployed will have access to the Employment Training Placement Scheme.
The aim of this scheme is to encourage private sector employers, through providing them a financial subsidy, to recruit unemployed persons. This subsidy is aimed to compensate for the training required to upgrade the skills of the unemployed. Under this scheme, ETC subsidises 50 per cent of the minimum wage paid by the employer, for the period of training which cannot exceed twelve months.
Furthermore, ETC will reformulate the existing Community Work Scheme to involve full-time attendance for 12 months on projects managed by local councils and non-governmental organisations. Four days a week will be spent working, and the fifth day will be available for training and jobseeking.
Participants will be paid the national minimum wage by their employer, partly reimbursed by ETC. Organisations with more than five workers will be entitled to recruit a supervisor, also from the long-term unemployed register, who will receive a payment above the minimum wage.
Economic Re-structuring
Restructuring is necessary if Maltese industry is to survive in a context of increased international competition. Restructuring will require companies to examine their products and processes, which may well give rise to the need for re-training and in some cases, for downsizing.
ETC is to continue to operate its specialised Intervention Unit in order to coordinate a full and proactive service for those at risk of redundancy.
The Older Unemployed
Unemployed persons over 40 tend in the main to be male, with negligible qualifications and unemployed for over twelve months. This profile gives rise to the need for a targeted approach. The older unemployed can avail themselves of the Employment Training Placement Scheme as outlined above.
A new initiative will be developed to provide an ongoing subsidy to employers as an incentive to recruit older unemployed workers. The subsidy aims to reduce the costs incurred by employers on National Insurance contributions and will be based on the minimum wage. The subsidy would be payable for up to five years.
As regards training, most persons attending ETC training programmes at present are relatively young. ETC will be developing an adult-focused approach to training, to cater for the learning needs of this target group.
Promotion of Female Participation in the Labour Market
While female participation has risen in past years, at 27 per cent it still stands considerably lower than most European countries. Progress in this area is still necessary: firstly by making all forms of gender discrimination illegal, and then by taking action to overcome remaining barriers to equality. ETC can play a positive role in this regard through its own programmes and through promotion activities at the workplace.
One new training initiative taken by ETC will assist women to enter non-traditional occupations, particularly necessary to ensure that women can obtain employment in rapidly growing sectors like information technology.
Another new initiative relates to the establishment of a section on gender equality within ETC. This section will coordinate all relevant activities and will also assist in the development of a childminding scheme for mothers wishing to work.
The section will also develop promotion activities with employers as well as incentives for employers to allow more flexible working arrangements such as job-sharing, part-time work, flexi-hours and telework.
National Plan for an IT-Literate Workforce
Malta's economic future depends in large part upon its ability to provide knowledge-based goods and services.
A vital part of this success will be based upon applying information and communication technologies across sectors and occupations. Malta also has potential to become a location for software development and other high-level IT jobs. The role of e-commerce is likely to continue to develop, while the wealth of information on the Internet must be harnessed for business as well as learning purposes.
In recognition of the above, ETC has developed a report entitled "A National Plan for an IT Literate Workforce". It will also be taking a number of initiatives to promote basic IT literacy, through the following measures:
Setting standards with regard to training needs analysis, skills assessments, provision of training and examination of skills attained.
Training the unemployed in
IT skills. This would include both higher-level IT skills training and IT applications training.
Facilitating the establishment of community centres in schools to provide evening IT courses and internet access to the general public.
Promoting IT careers for women.
Incorporating a one-day IT literacy component into its core skills course for the unemployed.
Encouraging commercial banks to provide training loans to employ-
ees wishing to follow IT training
programmes.
Coordinating a national IT skills audit.
Executing an intensive marketing campaign concerning IT literacy.
The ETC's vision for the future
The government has embarked on a programme to ensure high quality standards in public services as well as conformity to European Union legislation and best practice.
The Corporation is committed to implementing both aspects in the fields of employment and training. We aspire to establish and maintain the same standards of innovation, effectiveness and efficiency as the best public employment services in Europe. Our aspirations are based on firm principles as outlined under our acronym CREED overleaf. These principles are followed by a series of objectives to be attained in the business period 2000 - 2003.
Client-Centred
Ensuring that our services respond to the needs of our clients, rather than expecting them to fit into our organisational framework.
Relevant
Ensuring that our services meet the actual current and future employment and training needs of our country.
Effective
Ensuring that our services actually achieve what they are set up to achieve.
Efficient
Ensuring that all our services provide good value for taxpayers' money.
Developmental
Ensuring that we constantly improve upon the ways in which we develop, organise and deliver our services.
Strategic Objectives
The Corporation must continue to manage the organisation, its people and its finances, efficiently and effectively. Its processes must also be designed to achieve the right results. With this in mind, the Corporation will concentrate on six business areas:
Clients
Policy and planning
Processes
Performance management
Partnerships
Staff development
The strategic objectives reflect these six key business areas and link them to our CREED commitments. All the objectives relate to the period 2000 to 2003.
To improve client satisfaction with the Corporation's service.
Key Activities
January 2001
Upgrade our telephone system through structured cable (U.T.P.)
Establish a Customer Care Function
June 2001
Conduct annual client satisfaction surveys
From October 2001
Launch Quality Service Charters for Jobseekers and Employers
ETC's physical facilities and maintenance programme
To improve the quality of services offered to all clients
October 2000
Introduce a case management system for clients of ETC
June 2001
Launch a pilot Regional Centre
October 2002
Evaluate pilot Regional Centre
December 2002
Finalise study on requirements for ISO adherence
June 2003
Launch additional Regional Centres
To launch new initiatives that meet the requirements of various client groups
Launch Job Start Youth Initiative - October 2000
Launch Traineeships - October 2000
Launch redefined Employment Training Placement Scheme - October 2000
Initiatives to assist females to enter non-traditional occupations - October 2000
Launch National Plan for an IT Literate Workforce - October 2000
Establish specialised section for disadvantaged groups - January 2001
Launch training programmes targeted at illiterate jobseekers - January 2001
Launch Community Work Scheme - January 2001
Strengthen ETC's role as executive arm to NCVPQ - January 2001
Launch training programme for redundant employees - January 2001
Initiative to promote flexible working arrangements - April 2001
Launch National Insurance subsidy for employers of the older unemployed - April 2001
Launch new initiatives to meet requirements of Gozitan labour market - July 2001
Strengthen ETC's competence in providing Vocational Guidance for adults - July 2001
Launch training programme for older employees - October 2001
Launch Entrepreneurship Scheme - October 2001
Feasibility study on conducting distance learning on local television - October 2001
Strengthen ETC's public relations to ensure awareness of initiatives - Ongoing
To improve our contribution to the formulation and analysis of employment and training policy
Draw up a Programme of Research Works - December 2000
Implement revised fee-charging system for provision of employment data - December 2000
Interpret the Labour Force Survey - January 2001
Publish annual tracer studies of school leavers - March 2001
Publish annual tracer studies of university graduates - July 2001
Transfer employment data to NACE sectoral coding - December 2001
Design ETC publications programme - December 2001
To become a key player in the development of human resource policy in Malta
Commence National Audit of Vocational and Professional Skills - December 2000
Draft national human resources development policy along current outline - October 2001
Develop a training advisory service for employers - October 2001
Compile catalogue of training provision in Malta and update on Website - October 2001
Launch Career Path Programme - December 2001
Launch ETC as National Training Institution in liaison with ETF - January 2002
Manage and improve Apprenticeship Schemes
Organise and deliver mainstream training programmes
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