Malta Skills Survey 2022: Final Report
Date Published: 19th July 2024
Summary:
In October 2022, the National Statistics Office launched a national stock-taking exercise, namely the Malta Skills Survey (MSS), with the main goal of collecting high-quality statistics on the skills of the Maltese labour force. Apart from detailed information on skills, the MSS also gathered detailed information on knowledge of languages, educational attainment, and work experience and licenses held. Socio-demographic data was also gathered on all respondents thus allowing comparisons of results between different population groups.
The MSS aimed to produce reliable statistics rooted in data about the skills and competencies, thus enabling users to identify any skills gaps and skills mismatches. Such information should give a better understanding of the level of preparedness which the Maltese labour market has to attract new investment. Analysis of this data will shed light on existing and future skills gaps, highlighting areas where the country needs to invest in further training.
A preliminary report of the findings was published in June last year, whereas, in May this year, the Office published some of the salient final results. This publication provides the final results and a detailed analysis of all the sections covered in the survey.
Salient Points of Publication:
• Working with computers was the most common broad skill category identified (78.6 per cent), followed by skills related to Assisting and caring (78.0 per cent) and Communication, collaboration, and creativity (75.8 per cent).
• Females were more likely to possess Assistance and caring skills, indicating a stronger gender predilection for care-giving roles. In contrast, males dominated constructing skills and those related to operating machinery.
• Younger individuals tended to be more proficient in technological skills and abilities in the Communication, collaboration and creativity category, reflecting an age-related trend in favour of digital activities.
• Persons with higher education attainment were more likely to be proficient in Communication, collaboration and creativity, Computer skills, and Management skills.
• The most prevalent licence type in Malta is the Driving licence, held by 82.1 per cent of persons aged 15 to 64. The second and third most popular types were those authorising use of Nautical equipment/procedures and Firearms. These were a far second and third at 8.4 per cent and 5.4 per cent of the target population respectively.
• The three top languages persons aged 15-64 were proficient in at the time of the survey were English (96.0 per cent), Maltese (90.4 per cent) and Italian (62.0 per cent). Other languages, such as French, Spanish, German and Arabic joined the top ranks of Malta’s lingual landscape.
• It emerged from the survey that close on 40 per cent of the 15-64 population had the desire to improve their skills sets or to acquire new skills. A majority were willing to do this by attending training programmes. For persons in employment, the overriding desire was to upgrade those skills linked to their current jobs or careers
