ETC is a big fucking joke. I know because I’ve been an unwilling client of theirs. The fellow who took down my details for the jobless register was barely literate.

Basically, if you haven’t an O Level to your name and are looking for a job as a dishwasher or waiter, ETC is fine. Otherwise, it’s big ruddy expensive useless organisation.

What a load of crap. And in which industry is this employer not finding 10 suitable employees? Could it be you’re offering peanuts?

Does anyone really think that unemployment can be reduced overnight?

It requires, effort, dedication, commitment and a solid infrastructure to allow people to return to work, addressing each and every sector of the workforce specifically with tailor-made incentives.

It is misleading to compare our unemployment figure with the French unemployment figure. When quoting the Maltese unemployment figures, there is a reference to “inactive” individuals.

That is, in my view, the scary bit.

That is the wasted resources of the country. The Maltese government should be encouraging the “inactive” to become “active”.

Being an employer, i know that there is a dearth of talent out there. How i would like to employ another ten Maltese people; if only.

So if you include the huge percentage of “inactive” with the unemployed lot, the unemployment figure would be so much higher than the average in Europe.

Having said that, I am aware that there are so many job opportunities in Malta for the Maltese; forgive me for saying this, but i think that the Maltese, especially the younger generation, are simply too lazy and disinterested to be arsed with work when mummy and daddy will always be there for them, buy them a car, do their laundry, cook for them and make sure that they lack nothing.

On the other hand, the government and ETC have failed the nation when it comes to education and purposeful education.

the British government concluded that certain vocational courses, similar to the ones organised at MCAST are deemed to be a waste of time, leading to nothing more than a piece of paper that is totally detached from the day to day reality of the working life.

Yet, we go on to promote 200+ courses, as if the more courses you have the better you are.

It is all so wrong.

ETC is not fit for purpose. ETC is there to massage figures, process numbers and makes sure that redundancies do not reflect statistics. Ex-Air Malta people are simple placed in some spurious scheme, incentive, training or employment and are then vanished from the unemployment figures.

Today, it feels like we are paying people to turn up for work but not to work.

Would someone teach the next generation about work ethics, responsibility and about the fact that work equals dignity.

I would like the next government to seriously overhaul education-bring it out from the dark ages and updated to the modern world; and the ETC – nuke it and make it about actually creating opportunities, supporting businesses in finding good people to work and helping people create opportunities for themselves.

Would a change in government do that? I wonder.

Forsi kumbinazzjoni imma anke Hollande qed jgholli jdejh … qisu qed jaqbel ma Joey dan.

Kev, I can understand Labour being worried about a stealth tax, the way they are stealthily going about, making stealthy promises to anybody who will listen.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/9561616/Britain-to-battle-plans-to-give-EU-stealth-tax-raising-powers.html

…u dak mhux Bruno Waterfield? X’tistenna mit-Telegraph! U dan 1% biss fuq il-VAT ta…. bhalma kien fl-Istati Uniti fil-passat remot… jigifieri hekk se jibqa…. thabblux sufkom, morru orqdu u hallu f’idejn Mario Draghi, dak jaf x’inhu jaghmel.

U lin-negozjanti ghandu “ihallihom jahdmu.”

Hollande actually promised many fancy propositions and reductions on taxes. The French chose the ‘nice pre-election talk’ and see what they got now.