Addressing the launch of a national employment strategy, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana ruled out the move towards a four day work week ‘at this stage’. Caruana revealed that the government would be willing to discuss the prospect once worker productivity and skillsets improved. As of yet, Malta is not in that situation, said the minister, despite several other countries, including Iceland, Scotland and Spain, trying out the work week model.
With the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development recently proposing a similar trial for the island, Caruana said that education needed to be improved first. The minister highlighted how in the span of 20 years there had been only marginal improvements in the number of students leaving compulsory education with six O-Levels.
Caruana also acknowledged that many high-end jobs had been filled by foreigners as the Maltese did not have the skills to take them on. Creating new work opportunities would be ironic if worker’s children did not have the skills required to take them on. Malta has one of the highest rates of early school leavers in the EU, said the Minister. This would make it immensely difficult for Malta to compete in a world where Scandinavian youth spend an average of 21 years in education.
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Photo Source: Clyde Caruana FB, iStock