MALTA: Wide skills gap presents 'major challenge'

08 March 2009

Malta's workforce will need to undergo a paradigm shift if Malta is to remain competitive within the European Union, a report published by the National Commission for Higher Education found, writes David Lindsay for the Malta Independent.

Additionally, if the government is to meet its employment and Vision 2015 targets, both the numbers of Malta's workforce and their sets of skills will need to be expanded substantially.

With 75% of the Maltese workforce in 2008 falling into the 'low qualification' bracket and with 79% of the European Union workforce projected to have medium to high qualifications by 2015, the report found the state of affairs presents a "major challenge for Malta's competitiveness".

If Malta is to reach the target, it will need to have an additional 55,000 highly qualified workers and 99,000 medium qualified workers, while it would also need to 'lose' 77,000 of its low qualified workers from the labour force.
Full report on the Malta Independent site

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