2021 was somewhat overshadowed by COVID-19. It was a year where priorities changed for everyone – for our partners, stakeholders, organisations and their respective owners and employees. Notwithstanding all this, the eSkills Malta Foundation considered the situation and proceeded diligently.

Suddenly everybody realised that digitalisation is crucial to industry and its workforce, education at any level, and any person in society. The business model needed considerable adjustment to cope, bringing about a drastic change in the industry requirements, even to the digital sector. With this in mind, the foundation continued to carry out its mandates.

One of its major milestones in 2021 was the launch of the ICT Skills Demand and Supply Monitor. The monitor provides an accurate snapshot of the current state of affairs about the talent pool in the ICT sector. This project analysed the skills and competencies required by the ICT industry (including ICT departments or units of the sectorial industry and the CIO offices in the public sector) and the supply of education and training.

One of its major milestones in 2021 was the launch of the ICT Skills Demand and Supply Monitor

Another initiative the foundation implemented to promote digital skills skilling, upskilling and reskilling was the annual Digital Skills Bootcamp for different target groups through official engagements with training and education providers. The purpose of these bootcamp sessions is to give various targets groups the opportunity to increase basic or advanced digital skills. Many sessions were held online, which proved very successful and well-attended.

One of the main national concerns regarding digital skills is the participation of girls and women in having access to equal opportunities to take advantage of digital opportunities. Female participation in the digital world is very low. The foundation has been addressing this matter for some years. Consequently, in 2021 it organised several ‘Women in Digital’ courses, and other training and events aimed specifically at women. Like the Digital Skills Bootcamps, all sessions were held online and free of charge.

The foundation constantly strives to increase its viability and visibility through an intensive awareness campaign carried out all year long. This is done through the foundation’s regular participation in local media programmes. Some of these include Gadgets and Poplin on local TV.

The foundation constantly creates awareness about the importance of digital skills and digitalisation in every aspect of life. The awareness campaign is also carried out through the publication of articles and educational adverts on various printed media and on the foundation’s social media channels.

2021 was also an outstanding year for the foundation’s participation in the EU CodeWeek, with over 500 coding events held. Like previous years, both state and Church schools proved to be instrumental for this success, together with MCAST, private training providers, IT companies and local councils. This year there was also an increase in coding tutors whose sessions proved to be truly successful.

In April, 2021, the following three major events were organised:

Some of the participants at last year’s online webinar for guidance teachers about careers in ICT.

The foundation held an online webinar about ‘Careers in ICT for Guidance Teachers’, in collaboration and partnership with the Ministry for Education’s National School Support Services, the University of Malta, MCAST and Shireburn Software. The webinar included several leading speakers explaining the various educational paths available here in Malta for today’s students.  The webinar was well-attended by career guidance teachers. The foundation believes career guidance teachers are pivotal for the development of children and that such teachers need to be up to date with the latest digital career trends to guide and steer children’s talents and aspirations.

The foundation organised a webinar about ‘Digital skills for a conscious and active use of digital technologies’, in collaboration and partnership with BluSpecs and the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition Secretariat. This event focused on understanding the effects and value of digitalisation and digital platforms on society. The webinar included an insightful panel discussion between MEP Alex Aguis Saliba, 3CL Foundation executive director Alex Grech, TechMT CEO Dana Farrugia and Grazio Grixti, director for digital literacy and transversal skills at the Education Ministry. Martin Debattista, a researcher on digital media and education, moderated the panel. Among the issues raised were the need to teach and include digital skills in national curricula at an early age, as well as societal digital skills needed to use the digital platforms responsibly.

The foundation, in collaboration with IT Professionalism Europe, and the Irish Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition, held the ‘IT Professionalism Conference 2021’, which took place over three half-day online sessions. To address current and new challenges posed by the advent of digitalisation, the EU has proposed a path for the next Digital Decade, with targets for society, industry and the ICT sector to be reached by 2030. One of the EU targets is to have 20 million IT professionals working by 2030. This calls for all stakeholders to increase their efforts and cooperation to revitalise the current initiatives for professionalising the European IT workforce.

The foundation was one of the main sponsors of this year’s ‘Code.sprint’, a national coding competition organised by the Education Ministry, as the initiative aligns with its mandate to support students pursuing computing and IT at secondary, post-secondary and tertiary undergraduate levels. During this highly sought-after competition, coding students put their skills to the test by working their way through a series of tasks to earn a spot in the finals.

The foundation also supported and sponsored many other courses throughout the year. These included the ‘Elements of AI’ course, Amazon web services courses and free Linkedin Microsoft courses. The foundation and the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) also held the eBiznify Lite Launch and Graduation Ceremony in July 2021, which was launched by Economic and Industry Minister Silvio Schembri. All these courses form part of a good education system and first-class training to develop well-drilled and talented resources on the island.

Other initiatives implemented or supported by the foundation throughout the year included the Toastmasters sessions, participation in MCAST Fresher’s Days, meeting local councils and various webinars, among other events.

The foundation’s efforts during 2021 truly paid off and managed to turn it into a successful year. The future bodes well for the eSkills Malta Foundation and Malta in general. In 2022, the foundation will embark on an important milestone project to develop the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform. The foundation is sure its efforts will continue to bear more fruit.