THE ROLE OF ETC IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY

THE ROLE OF ETC IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF

A NATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY

(FAS Consultancy to ETC)

Introduction

The Employment. and Training Corporation (ETC) issued an invitation to FAS International Consulting (Ireland) to visit Malta to discuss the possibility of providing consultancy services for a thorough operations review of the ETC. The Chief Executive of FAS International visited Malta during the 26^th to 28^th October 1999 and at the end of the visit it was agreed that FAS International would submit a proposal in response to the Terms of Reference (TOR) prepared by the ETC.

The roles of the ETC and FAS are a close match for each other as both organisations have responsibility for the provision of employment and vocational training services within their own countries. Both organisations are state agencies, governed by tripartite boards and reporting to government ministries. In addition FAS has a very active subsidiary for the provision of international services, which in the past has included assisting the equivalent organisations in Greece and Portugal to prepare for European Union (EU) membership. FAS International also has experience of working with labour market programme reforms in the majority of the other countries that are current applicants to join the EU.

FAS has the experience and institutional memory of preparing for Ireland's entry into the EU in 1973 and of responding to the opportunities and challenges presented by our membership. Ireland is often cited by EU officials as the outstanding example of how a peripheral member State has benefited from EU membership and FAS has played an important role in this.

A National Human Resources Strategy for Malta: the Role of ETC

The analysis of unemployment statistics held by the ETC continues to confirm the urgent need to have a clear policy which addresses Human Resource Management and Development issues for Malta, particularly in view of the rapid changes which are taking place as a result of modernisation and the subsequent restructuring processes underway.

The analysis confirms that our workforce has developed (or is developing) certain traits which need to be recognised and addressed. Of significance are the following:

• The growing mismatch between the needs of our economy and the skills available in the Labour Supply, particularly the relevance of technological development and its cascading impact on IT skills and job designs;

• The shift of product-markets being skewed towards the new economy, an economy based on personalised services, leaving skill-gaps in the production and manufacturing sectors;

• The increasingly evident lack of an adequate infrastructure to address vocational needs;

• The growing numbers of long-term unemployed and the necessity for better retrenching and/or retraining;

• The frequency of illiteracy rates among the current workforce;

• The absence of National Vocational Qualification structures which will enable official certification and recognition of skills;

• The exponential increase in entry of women into the labour supply, as well as the increase in part-time employment rates;

• The need to address better training services and employment schemes to support disadvantaged groups, such as, persons with disability, persons with a history of mental health conditions, ex-convicts and rehabilitated drug mis-users.

Malta still lacks a national employment strategy which can give a more focused direction to our educational and vocational structures, whilst merging economic and social policies for better employment opportunities and support structures. The development of a national employment strategy is inevitable, if Malta wants to address the challenges which restructuring and modernisation are presenting in collaboration with all social actors and partners. This strategy can only be devised if our national employment agency (ETC) gears up to this change and becomes pro-active in its role to facilitate and promote equitable access to employment and training opportunities. This change in ETC's role can only take place if ETC itself adopts a national human resources policy in line with the requirements of the future National Employment Strategy and if it undergoes a high-level operations review which will allow it to develop employment and training services which better meet the current and future labour market needs.

FAS Terms of Reference

1. To assist government and the Employment & Training Corporation (ETC) in the development of a national HR policy and strategy which complements and supports national economic policy and strategy.

2. To develop a three year Business Plan for ETC based on the Employment Guidelines 2000.

3. To analyse current ETC operations and services and provide assistance to upgrade these services through more effective use of IT.

4. To assist ETC in developing an in-house market research capability to continuously monitor labour market trends.

5. To assist ETC in the development of employment policies/strategies which enable it:

   • to face the challenges posed by a re-structuring economy;

   • to face the challenges posed by a re-structuring economy;

   • to design and implement appropriate employment initiatives which facilitate the entry of youngsters into the labour force;

   • to design and implement appropriate employment initiatives aimed particularly at the long-term unemployed;

   • to design and implement appropriate employment initiatives aimed at persons over 40 years of age (primarily males) becoming redundant as a result of the economic restructuring process;

   • to design and implement appropriate employment initiatives aimed at assisting the employment of disadvantaged groups i.e. persons with disabilities, ex-convicts, ex-substance mis-users;

   • to promote and implement equal employment opportunities for men and women;

   • to design and implement an effective community employment scheme.

6. To assist ETC in the development of training policies and strategies which enable it:

   • to design and provide vocational training opportunities to job seekers which are correlated to current and future labour market demand

   • to design and implement appropriate vocational training opportunities to the long-term unemployed, in particular those who are illiterate

   • to design and implement appropriate vocational training opportunities to persons affected by economic re-structuring

   • to design and implement appropriate vocational training opportunities for persons with disabilities and disadvantaged groups

   • to promote the concept of equal opportunity in training by providing vocational training opportunities for men and women

   • to develop a comprehensive framework for developing standards of occupational competence and for certifying the attainment of these standards

   • to offer apprenticeship training opportunities not only to school leavers but also to people already in employment

7. To assist ETC in the development of initiatives aimed at stimulating entrepreneurship.

8. To assist ETC to create an internal structure to manage the ETC-European Union link regarding employment and training matters and to derive related funding

Approach and Methodology

FAS Consultants will be working with ETC staff to examine the current needs, and using trend analysis and experience of other countries to anticipate future needs. Strengths will be identified and areas that are well developed in the ETC and the Ministry of Social Policy will be utilized and built upon. FAS International shall advise, support and transfer know-how in those areas where there are gaps in experience and knowledge.

An ETC Planner assisted by the necessary support staff will lead the assignment on a full-time basis. Relevant ETC divisional staff will be made available to work on the activities concerning their division and with the visiting consultants.

3.02.2000