The Union of Professional Educators has warned that a proposal to extend the obligatory school-leaving age to 18 'will not work' and has proposed specialised trade schools as an alternative.
In a statement, the union said the proposal made by the Chamber of Commerce in its national workforce strategy on Wednesday would not be possible due to the impact on revenue generated by tax collection and the lack of infrastructure and human resources to educate a much larger school population.
Instead, the union suggested a new model of specialised trade schools aimed at areas such as commerce, IT and languages.
"In this way, the educational structure would also cater for gifted children. A similar model was adopted by the Ministry of Education some years ago when the National Sports School was established," the union said.
It also called for the introduction of apprenticeships at post-secondary and tertiary levels to allow university students to immerse themselves in their field of study.
The UPE praised the strategy's proposal of incentivising women to join the workforce on a full-time basis, which it said should go hand in hand with a significant increase in paternal leave to allow fathers to care for their children.
However, it said, the education proposals made in the document would have been "more productive" if they had been discussed with stakeholders in the sector, and said it was ready to be part of such discussions aimed at creating a comprehensive plan for the future.
The Chamber of Commerce has said its recommendation to increase the compulsory education age would make post-secondary education compulsory too, leaving students no option but to continue studying rather than leaving school empty-handed.
This would also help when these students realise that they had made a mistake to leave school so early and would come in useful if they opt to attend in-work courses to increase the level of their education, the Chamber said.
The Malta Union of Teachers has criticised the proposal, insisting schools were not "producers of workers to meet the needs of businesses".
"Businesses want to shrug off their responsibilities to train new workers, expecting educational institutions to carry out training through the proposed extended compulsory school age," the Union said.