National employee skills survey

Policy development
Practical measure/Initiative
Malta
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Timeline
  • 2015Implementation
  • 2016Implementation
  • 2017Completed
ID number
28422

Background

A brief overview of the context and rationale of the policy development, explaining why it is implemented or why it is important.

In 2015, there was no specific institutional framework for the anticipation of skill needs in Malta. Statistics about education and labour market trends are published by the National Statistics Office (NSO) and by the National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE).

Objectives

Goals and objectives of the policy development.

The project objective was to collect evidence on the demands faced by employers in different sectors of the Maltese economy and undertake a skills forecast in terms of skills, qualifications and experience required, as well as the number of staff required/not required in the medium and long term.

Description

What/How/Who/For whom/When of the policy development in detail, explaining its activities and annual progress, main actors and target groups.

The NCFHE, together with Jobsplus (the successor to the Employment and Training Corporation (ETC)) and Malta Enterprise, embarked on a 2014-16 research project funded by Erasmus+ on skill needs and supply and the demand for workers in the labour market in Malta. The results of the research study were presented in a conference held in July 2016 and report was finalised and printed in 2017. The project objective was to collect evidence on the demands faced by employers in different sectors of the Maltese economy and undertake a skills forecast in terms of skills, qualifications and experience required, as well as the number of staff required/not required in the medium and long term.

Besides that, the survey collected data on:

  1. recent recruitments;
  2. types of vacancies that are hard to fill and the reasons for such situations;
  3. the level of qualification held by employees in different sectors of the Maltese economy, their knowledge, skills and competences as well as their training needs during their employment.
2015
Implementation
2016
Implementation

The results of the research study were presented in a conference held in July 2016.

2017
Completed

The final report was published in 2017.

Bodies responsible

This section lists main bodies that are responsible for the implementation of the policy development or for its specific parts or activities, as indicated in the regulatory acts. The responsibilities are usually explained in its description.
  • Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA)
  • Jobsplus (Public Employment Service)
  • Malta Enterprise

Target groups

Those who are positively and directly affected by the measures of the policy development; those on the list are specifically defined in the EU VET policy documents. A policy development can be addressed to one or several target groups.

Entities providing VET

  • Companies

Other stakeholders

  • National, regional and local authorities

Thematic categories

Thematic categories capture main aspects of the decision-making and operation of national VET and LLL systems. These broad areas represent key elements that all VET and LLL systems have to different extents and in different combinations, and which come into focus depending on the EU and national priorities. Thematic categories are further divided into thematic sub-categories. Based on their description, policy developments can be assigned to one or several thematic categories.

Governance of VET and lifelong learning

This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.

This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.

The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.

Establishing and developing skills intelligence systems

High-quality and timely skills intelligence is a powerful policy tool, helping improve economic competitiveness and fostering social progress and equality through the provision of targeted skills training to all citizens (Cedefop, 2020). Skills intelligence is the outcome of an expert-driven process of identifying, analysing, synthesising and presenting quantitative and/or qualitative skills and labour market information. Skills intelligence draws on data from multiple sources, such as graduate tracking systems, skills anticipation mechanisms, including at sectoral and regional levels. Actions related to establishing and developing such systems fall under this thematic sub-category.

Subsystem

Part of the vocational education and training and lifelong learning systems the policy development applies to.
IVET
CVET

Further reading

Sources for further reading where readers can find more information on policy developments: links to official documents, dedicated websites, project pages. Some sources may only be available in national languages.
Malta Enterprise website
The final employment skills survey report document

Country

Malta

Type of development

Policy developments are divided into three types: strategy/action plan; regulation/legislation; and practical measure/initiative.
Practical measure/Initiative
Cite as

Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). National employee skills survey: Malta. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].

https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/28422