For the past four decades, different political administrations have focused on improving the educational achievement levels in our education system, which remain amongst the worst in the EU. Understandably, the main focus was motivating young people to continue their post-secondary education and preferably enrol for tertiary education.
There are clear indications that this objective has been reached. According to the National Statistics Office, the number of students enrolled in post-secondary and tertiary education in 2023 was nine per cent more than the previous year. Business studies and law are the preferred courses in tertiary education, while qualifications in health and welfare are also popular with undergraduates.
While these statistics indicate progress, policymakers must ask some tough questions about whether our education system is preparing our young people for the world of work. We must start rethinking how we evaluate qualifications in an age of unpredictable job evolution. Research, for instance, indicates that the correlation between education level and job performance is weak and that intelligence score indicates job potential much better.
As the impact of artificial intelligence technology grows, candidates who can perform tasks that machines cannot are becoming more valuable. This is a huge opportunity for our university and higher education institutions to restore relevance by teaching students emotional intelligence, resilience, empathy, integrity, learnability and leadership skills. We often hear employers and business leaders complain about the unfortunate gap between what students learn in university or vocational colleges and what they are expected to know to be job-ready.
As tertiary-level qualifications become more commonplace, recruiters and employers will increasingly demand them, regardless of whether they are actually required for a specific job. This is leading to growing underemployment that undermines the career prospects of many young people, especially those who enrol in relatively soft courses in humanities, law and some business studies.
All stakeholders in the education system, especially students, must assess the actual, rather than the perceived, value of a tertiary-level degree. Academic qualifications and grades indicate how much a candidate has studied but their performance on an intelligence test reflects their ability to learn, reason and think logically. For some students, these latter skills can be honed better in trade schools than in academic institutions. It is the right time to reintroduce trade schools in the education system.
Employers and recruiters are unlikely to be impressed by candidates unless they can demonstrate a certain degree of people skills. While tertiary-level institutions give importance to achieving high grades, employers want candidates with higher levels of resilience, empathy and integrity that traditional educators give less attention to.
Successful employers have stressed the importance of learnability – being curious and having a hungry mind ‒ as a critical indicator of career potential. There is good reason to try to understand why critical thinking remains so poor in Malta.
It is also the right time for our post-secondary institutions to restore their relevance by helping fill the learning gap many managers face when they are promoted into leadership roles. Unfortunately, people often take on leadership positions without much formal management training.
Today, the state and many students are spending more money and energy on higher education. Their main goal is mainly pragmatic: to boost their employability and be a valuable contributor to the economy.
While a tertiary level qualification is a benefit we must continue to pursue, we must change the narrative on the importance of education by putting less weight on ‘higher education’ as a measure of intellectual competence and job potential and, instead, approach hiring with more open-mindedness.