Learning how to handle money

Financial literacy covers many topics; from an education about personal finance to financial literacy skills that are essential for a career in the growing financial services sector in our islands. Our objective is that of furthering financial literacy in Malta and to this aim, we have set up a committee jointly with the Malta Stock Exchange to discuss ways in which the Exchange and the Ministry for Education can work together.

Students and graduates with an ambition to pursue a career in this important sector should have the necessary skills and qualifications that will facilitate their transition from educational institutions to working environments.

But critical financial literacy is essential not only for those pursuing a career in the sector. It is crucial as a lifeskill: handling money, knowing how to budget, learning to live sustainably within your means and reading between the lines when you are offered glittering financial products out to deceive you.

An early introduction to financial education is important. Gaining the knowledge and skills to make important financial decisions is a lifelong process. Malta’s school system should implement financial education at an early age. Our children should be given financial literacy from the first savings in a piggy bank to personal finance guidance to help them become financially responsible adults.

Meanwhile, most students still graduate from high school without any formal classroom education in personal finance. We need to help our children distinguish between needs and wants and then to graduate to budgeting income and expenditure. Unfortunately most students finish compulsory schooling without a sound knowledge of managing personal finance.

Together with the stock exchange we will be introducing initiatives to develop further a higher financial education. The Malta Stock Exchange will help in various ways, such as encouraging students to participate in investment competitions and to offer participation in investment courses at the Exchange. Next October, an Investor Education Conference is being held and the Malta Stock Exchange is using social media as well as various other media, such as TV and radio shows to promote educational financial information to the public.

Strengthening tourism in Gozo

Gozo has always been given its due importance by this government. We believe in the potential of the Gozitan people and at the ITS Centre in Qala, we have recently launched two new schemes, particularly aimed at the hospitality industry in the sister island. These schemes, originally announced in the 2015 budget, will help create sustainable employment in Gozo for the people of Gozo.

We want to encourage employment and we are offering operators in the tourism sector a refund of National Insurance contributions up to a maximum of €1,000 for every new additional employee taken on. We believe that through this scheme, we will be able to generate around 130 new jobs, for which we would be giving out around €130,000 in refunds on national insurance contributions.

The Hospitality Industry is a season-orientated business and Gozo is no exception. It is also a selective industry and we are well aware of the stiff competition in tourism. We believe that we can upgrade the service that we offer and to this end, my government is launching another scheme to encourage workers in this sector to attend training courses that will help better their performance and boost job security. 

Employers in the catering industry will be awarded a grant up to a maximum of €1,080 per participant for every employee attending a training course between November 2015 and March 2016.  We expect that employers will welcome this initiative and that around 100 participants will benefit. Through this investment, we feel that we can considerably improve the services offered and help the public sector increase business in Gozo.

This coming scholastic year we will include hospitality as a subject in all state secondary schools as well as in Church schools in Gozo. Thus we will be supporting the industry through positive measures and by creating more opportunities for students.