About

About

The eSkills Malta Foundation was launched in 2014 as an initiative by the government to have a specific entity that focuses on digital skills.  The general aim of the Foundation is the expansion and sustainable growth of ICT skills in Malta through the development of a broad set of skills from early on in life, throughout their career and employment which will ultimately boost employability, competitiveness and growth in the Digital Economy. We collaborate with our founder members, and other local and foreign organisations to achieve this more effectively.

The Foundation have been entrusted with a number of mandates relating to digital skills.  In general, we advise Government and stakeholders on matters related to eSkills policy, contribute to the expansion of ICT educational programmes and related formative initiatives, we lead an ICT professionalism development programme, we instigate further reform in the ICT educational offerings and contribute to capacity-building in the ICT education community, and champion campaigns and promote the Maltese eSkills potential locally and internationally.

One of the main national (and in fact European) concerns is the participation of certain groups in society, both for participation in the ICT industry and for having access to equal opportunities in taking advantage of digital opportunities.  One of these target groups is the female gender where especially in the ICT industry the numbers are very low.  In this respect, we feel a certain responsibility to try to address this. We would like to make our digital economy contribution more effective to women, and to this effect, a focus group – Women in ICT has been set up made up of like-minded individuals coming from the ICT industry or organisations that make use of ICT. The proposed objectives of the group are:

• Increase the participation in the Digital industry or digital-related industry by girls and women
• Having access to equal opportunities in taking advantage of the digital opportunities Increases on the Quality of Resources for the ICT Industry
• Discuss Gender issues at the place of work in the digital environment and propose possible solutions
• Contribution to Policy to stakeholders
• Specific Projects

The focus group will meet once every two months to discuss gender issues and propose possible initiatives and solutions to address them.  The Foundation will take these in consideration in proposing policies, and would also be able to act in some of them.