European Social Fund

2.1 Employability and Adaptability


Human resources are Malta's main natural resource and as such provide the country with the competitive advantage Malta may have. A continuous upgrading of the human resource base is required if the Maltese economy is to be competitive. The need for an upgrading and transfer of skills is also necessitated by the fact that the Maltese economy is currently going through a restructuring process, the pace of which has been further exacerbated by compliance with the acquis in view of EU membership in May 2004. Over the next few years some industries will be restructured with "new" industries developing. Consequently there is a need to prepare and adapt the local workforce to satisfy the skills demand of these emerging industries in order to make full use of the available human potential. This means that all efforts should be streamlined to integrate women, the young and the long term unemployed into the active work force. Within this context, the actions envisaged under this measure will aim at increasing the employability of people who are unemployed, improving the opportunities for women to enter/re-enter the workforce, as well as upgrading the skills of workers in some key areas such as electrical and mechanical engineering, information and communication technologies and construction. This is also considered to be important in the context of the adaptability of workers moving from one industry to another. Actions will also be taken to preserve and disseminate skills in traditional crafts such as lace making, glass blowing and boat building.