Fighting the trend
The authorities are waking up to the fact that a substantial section of Malta's human resource is not contributing to the island's growth. Louis Galea, minister for employment and education, yesterday stated that the employment rate in Malta, particularly female, is unacceptably low:
According to the latest Eurostat figures, Malta has the lowest female employment rate (32.8%) amongst European countries. Malta has also registered the greatest difference between male and female employment rates with a huge gap of 42%.
Louis Galea will need to work hard on convincing his colleagues amongst whom are a number of social conservatives who are sceptical of the idea of encouraging women to work. An opinion piece by Marisa Micallef, who is amongst the more liberal minded of prominent Nationalists, challenges the spirit of Galea's assertions. Her general drift is that we should not be bothered by employment rates and that women are better off staying at home raising kids. Her tone is also surprisingly anti-European. Is this a new trend emerging in PN circles?
He told Parliament at the opening of the annual debate on the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) that it was unacceptable that Malta's participation rate was just 54 per cent - meaning that practically only half of those of working age were actually working...Dr Galea said the main reason was that the participation of women in the labour sector was very low, to the extent that even if all men were in employment, Malta's participation rate would still remain low.
According to the latest Eurostat figures, Malta has the lowest female employment rate (32.8%) amongst European countries. Malta has also registered the greatest difference between male and female employment rates with a huge gap of 42%.
Louis Galea will need to work hard on convincing his colleagues amongst whom are a number of social conservatives who are sceptical of the idea of encouraging women to work. An opinion piece by Marisa Micallef, who is amongst the more liberal minded of prominent Nationalists, challenges the spirit of Galea's assertions. Her general drift is that we should not be bothered by employment rates and that women are better off staying at home raising kids. Her tone is also surprisingly anti-European. Is this a new trend emerging in PN circles?
Thu Nov 03, 07:22:01 PM CETLouis Galea will need to work hard on convincing his colleagues amongst whom are a number of social conservatives who are sceptical of the idea of encouraging women to work.
Care to name them?
If anything we have a Prime Minister who thankfully ran out of female MPs in his Parliamentary Group before he could nominate more of them to Cabinet.
Thu Nov 03, 11:56:05 PM CET
Apart from Gonzi, Galea and Cristina, i have'nt heard other ministers encouraging higher female employment.
Wed Nov 23, 05:41:05 PM CET
Relating to Education in Malta
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I have recently moved to the U.K in order to further my studies by undertaking an MSc in ADMIS at LSE, and I have stumbled upon a rather ridicules hurdle which affects Maltese immigrants. I would like some one with some political muscle to investigate this issue and attract some attention to it.
In the U.K A-levels are given a lot of importance, even after a person graduates. This is because employers find it hard to distinguish between the quality of the different universities in the U.K, and so rely on A-levels as a unilateral standard.
People who study at well know universities, such as LSE, still face the same problem as they compete in a more competitive job market where employers can not distinguish between prospects simply by looking at university degrees, because the prospects are all from universities with equal reputation (like Harvard, LSE, Oxford etc..) and therefore employers are obliged to look at A-levels during the clearing process.
I feel this effects Maltese people that may wish to gain experience abroad very harshly, as the A-level system in Malta is uncompetitively hard, it stifles choice and imposes extra stress, making the average grades lower than their U.K counter parts. In the U.K A-levels have been split into AS1/AS2 in order to minimise examination stress and this has raised the average A-level grade substantially.
The point is; our A-levels grades are not translated properly to the U.K UCAS point system, imposing further difficulties for our students to gain an internationally competitive career and education.
This is just one other social system Malta needs to revaluate in order to pose itself to fully benefit from European union membership. A more detailed explanation of my experience with this issue may be found on my blog – www.academic-web.blogspot.com.
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