In July 2014, the national commission for further and higher education (NCFHE) launched a consultation on vocational education and training (VET) and higher education (HE) policy in Malta.

Vocational education and training policy proposes:

  • increased undergraduate (level 6) and post-graduate (level 7) programmes and research in VET subjects;
  • alternative areas for VET funding;
  • VET sector exposure at national and international levels;
  • work-based learning;
  • quality assurance in VET;
  • credit systems for VET;
  • national VET steering group;
  • VET and the labour market;
  • VET relationships with foreign colleges and institutions;
  • opening up and further support for private VET provision;
  • validating informal and non-formal learning and its relationship with VET provision;
  • promoting VET as a parallel stream to general education;
  • promoting VET in terms of lifelong learning opportunities to reach the EU target of 15% for adult participation in education and training by 2020;
  • teacher training and development;
  • providing more comprehensive guidance and counselling services;
  • modernising pedagogies and curricula;
  • maximising capture and use of data on VET;
  • supporting inclusive VET.

Over 100 representatives from the private and public sectors were involved in this consultation, including heads of VET institutions, government representatives, representatives from guidance and counselling units, student’s bodies, various NGOs and representatives of several local commissions. During consultation the NCFHE presented its draft policy on VET.

Consultation on VET and HE was shortly followed by a consultation process for the quality assurance framework for further and higher education. This was a three-month consultation process which ended in October 2014. The national quality assurance framework for further and higher education is a key deliverable of an ESF project making quality visible, led by NCFHE. The framework’s scope is to implement provisions on internal quality assurance and periodic external quality audits in Legal Notice 296 of 2012. The framework refers to further, higher and adult formal education provision in both State and non-State sectors.