Speaker Anġlu Farrugia received a courtesy visit by a group of Polish students with intellectual disability.

The students, together with their carers and headmistress hail from the Professional Foreign Practice of Students of SPP No. 9 in Krakow, Poland. They were in Malta as part of an EU-funded Erasmus Project: ‘People with deeper intellectual disability in the work environment – foreign practice as a way of professional inclusion’.

The aim of the project is to gain experience in the foreign labour market, increase the chances of disabled people in the domestic labour market and, above all, increase the self-esteem and personal development of the students.

Dr Farrugia said such experiences would open doors for these students as work was a realistic outcome for people with intellectual disability. He noted that this experience was not an ordinary experience, but the very necessary first step in successful training, where they would be taught a specific task in a specific work place, accompanied and watched by their job coach.

Dr Farrugia said that people with intellectual disability were able to work and have a career. He recalled that Maltese society firmly believed in respecting the dignity of each person, without distinction or discrimination, and in the provision of equal opportunities for every citizen.

Present for the meeting was Qrendi mayor David Schembri, since part of the work experience was held at the Qrendi local council.