Students in apprentice-based courses struggling to find placements

Some 850 full-time MCAST students are dropping out during the first year, while an unspecified number believed to be in the hundreds who are following an apprenticeship-based course are failing to find any placement in industry despite an acute shortage of skilled workers. In the latter case, some employers are opting for the cheaper solution by employing foreigners, rather than recruiting apprentices seeking to start a career in trades.

Official data obtained by the Voice of the Workers Weekly shows that during the last two academic years the number of those who started a course on full-time basis but did not continue was of 1,720 (853 during 2021-22 and 867 during 2022-23). In most cases these students were struck off due to high absenteeism or no attendance at all. It turns out that over these two academic years there were 1,091 such cases. The rest mere mostly students who resigned who numbered 488, while a further 141 were struck off at the very beginning of the year as they failed to turn up.

Though there is no tracer study into the reason for these dropouts, students who resigned were asked to outline the reason for their decision. From the replies received it transpired that only 11% left as they had found a job while 31% justified themselves saying the course did not meet their expectations or they struggled to follow. However, no reason was given by 48% of those who resigned.

Apprentice-based course struggling to find placements for students

Another major concern flagged to this portal regarding vocational education in Malta related to apprenticeship based full-time courses which are offered in six institutes. As of November 2022, there were 2,050 students in this category. Official MCAST data reveals that as on 1st July 2022, the rate of those who had found a placement (work-based learning opportunity with an employer to acquire hands on experience) varied between 47% and 80% in each of the six institutes respectively.  One year down the line on 5th July 2023 the respective rates were significantly lower and ranged between 25% and 66%. However, these figures might fluctuate during the years as students are considered ready to embark on the apprenticeship only at specific times of the year depending on the cohort, course, and curriculum timeline.

This portal sought to get the actual numbers rather than percentages but for some reason MCAST was not forthcoming and insisted that “we prefer sticking to percentages as numbers can be misleading and misinterpreted”. However, given that over 2,000 students are enrolled in apprenticeship-based courses and the percentages cited, these presumably translate to hundreds of students.

Asked about the difficulties being faced to find placement, an MCAST spokesperson cited lack of effort by some students and others being very selective when presented with an opportunity such as insisting on a particular location. There are also instances whereby sponsors deem the students unprepared, are reluctant to participate in the apprenticeship scheme or are not even aware of the option.

Some employers are uninformed about the incentives and resources available regarding the MCAST apprenticeship systems even though we have regular meetings with employers (one-on-one and as a group) aimed to explain recruitment procedures and regulations, the spokesperson said.

Arguably, the biggest concern is that some employers (sponsors) are deeming the regulatory frameworks too bureaucratic and resorting to recruiting foreign workers which more often than not is the cheaper option. However, such approach is denting the employment prospects of Maltese students wanting to specialise in certain trades and countering efforts being made to address certain shortages in the Maltese labour market, which ironically are flagged by employers.

Faced by these challenges MCAST is seeking to promote trades and fight public perception that certain jobs have less status than others. With over one fourth of those sitting for SEC not attaining the standard, it is high time that we rekindle in this large cohort the drive, passion and the attractive financial returns of trades and craft in our country, the MCAST spokesperson remarked.