The root of most of the country’s problems could easily be traced down to an overall flawed education system, the repercussions of which, have also seeped through the business sector which is facing a huge shortage of skills.
“We have a National Skills Strategy, a National Employment Policy, a National Skills Council and now there is talk of setting up a National Education Strategy and Policy. And yet we still have not found the right solutions,” says Abigail Agius Mamo, CEO of the SME Chamber.
The SME Chamber currently represents over 7,000 members and the Chamber’s constant interaction with its members is giving a clearer picture of the problems and issues currently being faced by most businesses.
“Of course, at the top of the list there is the persisting inflation which is affecting and worrying employers a lot. With this, we also need to consider the wage inflation which definitely does not help the situation where cola this year went up to €10 a week and next year this will be going up to €13 which will lead to more inflation.”
“However, other problems that are now concerning most of the SME Chamber’s members include the constant lack of good governance and trust in the institutions, the abuse in public procurement and the abrupt concessions where some businesses get red carpet treatment and others struggle to compete. Not to mention the way the public sector has been absorbing so many employees.”
“Our latest barometer found that 65 per cent of businesses feel that Malta is heading in the wrong direction. And against this backdrop, employers also continue to face a persisting lack of skills among today’s younger workforce namely social and digital skills, plus a huge lack of proper work ethic, issues that are further exacerbated by cultural and language barriers.”
“The attitude of many employees today seems to be a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude,” adds Ilaria Spiteri Axiak from Misco, who conducted the study.
A study conducted recently by Misco found that a strong work ethic, enthusiasm and empathy are the top three skills that employers feel lacking the most in today’s workforce.
“Various factors have led to an employee market where employees increasingly want to work on their own terms, have constant expectations and are reluctant to improve their skills through further knowledge and training,” she added.
Employers wanting to offer training encounter various challenges as well. Misco’s study found that the main challenge for 44 per cent of companies is the lack of enough available time, for 34 per cent it is budget constraints and for 32 per cent it is lack of interest.
“Companies still look at training as a cost rather than as an investment. In fact, already in 2022, 71 per cent of employers had mentioned that they prefer to employ ready trained and technically skilled individuals, as opposed to the 29 per cent of organisations who prefer to train employees themselves,” noted Spiteri Axiak.
“Meanwhile, productivity has gone down,” added Agius Mamo.
Employers also continue to face a persisting lack of skills
“When COVID hit, productivity had already dipped by half the EU average. Today, we still have not reached half the average compared to the EU.”
So, what happened?
Agius Mamo believes that Malta is a victim of the positives that came right after COVID and that the sustained economic growth placed the country in a comfort zone and distracted us from the need to think with vision.
“During the pandemic, we did a lot of soul searching and when it was over, we bounced off so swiftly that we lost the momentum for wanting to change our ways and lost all sense of strategy. Things caught up so quickly that we are now firefighting.”
“Demand in certain sections such as employment and skills is overwhelming but at the same time, we are looking at the wrong direction,” adds Spiteri Axiak.
“We need to be having more deeper conversations about the available skills in the market but what is certain nowadays is that employers are increasingly looking at soft skills in addition to the technical skills required to do the job.”
The theme of education continues to reverberate throughout the conversation.
“We are incompetent and we don’t even know it. Because how many times are we going to keep hearing about future skills, the future of work, creative skills, digital transformations and then, our education system is still focusing on linguistic abilities and an attitude towards a generic education with little incentive to specialise.”
“People are finding jobs right away and perhaps this is what is keeping them from wanting to advance their studies. We want to go towards digital innovation and yet we keep pushing students towards languages and traditional subjects,” adds Agius Mamo.
“We seem oblivious to the fact that the world is becoming more automated. Take accountants and auditors. Why are we still teaching manual inputting and archiving when we know these tasks are already becoming automated? We are taking too long to react to the global changes.”
Both Ilaria and Abigail acknowledged that people’s perspectives towards work have changed because their priorities have changed as well.
“Work is no longer at the top of people’s priority list and people find it easier to switch jobs and leave because this generation grew up with the choices at a touch of a button,” said Agius Mamo.
“We’re not saying that employers expect employees to work more and longer hours, but that they work to the full potential by using the right tools.”
“We certainly cannot afford to go back to our previous patterns. We need to work smarter and more efficiently and to do this we have to be trained. This is crucial because the EU nationals who have specialised jobs are leaving and we are going to be left to face the vacuum,” added Spiteri Axiak.
“We saw this coming from the studies we have been conducting. The government had put forward some 30 recommendations for the recent employment strategy. One such recommendation was to push for higher education and for people to stay longer in education. And yet, nothing was done about it.”
“We should start by identifying the critical challenges of the country and how education is crucial to tackle this situation. We can look at what is failing. If University is failing, should we think of a new university? Are we ready to revamp the whole system from the top down? Unless we bite the bullet, nothing will happen.”
“We are facing a big lack of skills. At the same time, we have school drop-outs and we still do not have a fit for them.”
“It is a question of attitude from those at the top doing policy. There are people coming up with policies and when those policies fail, these same people do not have the power to remove those failed policies. We come out with one consultation paper after another, we launch them and then nothing happens. And meanwhile, the education system which on it we should be building tomorrow’s workforce is failing.
“At this point, the problems we have can no longer be tackled in a political manner. We need some serious soul-searching,” concluded Agius Mamo.