An outstanding sign of growth was the MCAST Students Freshers’ Days in Paola, Mosta and the Gozo Campus.

MCAST students and staff members celebrated the start of a new academic year this week! This year, full-time applications have reached 9593 compared to 8235 in 2022, a 16% increase overall. Of these, almost 5,000 are new students (Maltese and non-Maltese). International student applications also increased by over 48%, reaching more than a quarter (26%) of all full-time applicant population across all Institutes.

Every Institute increased its application intake over 2022, now receiving an average of 1,500 applicants in each Institute. A significant increase in applications is evidenced in ICT-related subjects. Worth mentioning is that the rise in the number of female full-time applications in STEM-related institutes was higher compared to the increase of male full-time applicants. Such attraction to MCAST is the result of more than 200 Education and Training full-time programmes and the closer links between formal education and work experiences.

A mix of industry, Public Service, public sector and voluntary and non-governmental organisations attracted hundreds of students to ask questions about their future careers, voluntary work, and future studies in Malta and abroad. There were stands representing industry and future jobs from public organisations, the Public Service and sector, and non-governmental and voluntary organisations.

Stands at Freshers’ Week represented MCAST’s education and training core ethos – work-based learning.

The College provides a balanced approach between formal education through theory and compulsory practice (as apprentices or work placements) and opportunities to support the voluntary sector. Working in voluntary organisations earns students credits for their overall academic transcript and graduation. In the academic year 2022-2023, over 55,000hours of voluntary work was conducted by MCAST students in the various organisations.

Visits by Prime Minister Robert Abela, the Opposition Leader Bernard Grech, the Minister for Education Clifton Grima and Ministers Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, Byron Camilleri and Clint Camilleri, as well as several MPs and aspiring MEPs, served to underline the importance the country gives to vocational and professional training and the proliferation of skills that the labour markets need to sustain and grow its services and productivity.

MCAST is an alternative reality of excellence in further and higher education in Malta. It enrolls students from the lower levels of our qualifications framework to a doctoral programme. It reaches out to all students finishing compulsory education. Courses lead to employability in almost all sectors of our growing economy, from aviation to engineering, artificial intelligence and IT, social care, animal care and agribusiness, finance, accounts and management, nursing, the maritime sector, the creative and performing arts and the applied sciences such as green, food and chemical technologies, environmental health and other.

Freshers’ Week also allowed visitors to view the improved infrastructure and the new building of the Institute for Information Technology and Communication, which will be inaugurated in early 2024. Today, MCAST’s Library opens 12 hours a day every day, and plans are in hand to increase the night hours, including weekends.

MCAST lives its new strategic expectation to be a community college for all.

We welcome young learners and workers for micro-credentials, full qualifications, hobby courses, and, more importantly, upskilling and reskilling. For this purpose, MG2i has played a pivotal role in organising Freshers’ Week by attracting industry partners from across and beyond our country. The same level of credit goes to the Community Service Responsibility (CSR) team for mobilising so many voluntary organisations that attract students to their needs and goals.

This is the community of learning and working that MCAST is creating for Malta. Our next challenge is re-establishing trades as a stepping-stone towards more SMEs restoring a glorious, dying cultural heritage.

The College has no barriers in entry requirements, respects diversity and carries the NCPE Equality Mark!

Through this content, we would like to thank all those who have sponsored and supported Students Fresher’s Week, the Authorities for their unfailing commitment towards the college students and staff members and the general public, especially parents and guardians, for trusting their young talent in the hands of MCAST’s professional.

We can sustain this growth by inviting employers to support our students’ work-based learning through more apprenticeship programmes and work placements. We also welcome government’s continued support in improving MCAST campus providing students the physical learning environment of the 21^st century.

MCAST’s growth is the Island’s social and economic success.