MCAST Engineering grads file judicial protest after being denied warrant

A group of five new Engineering graduates from MCAST have filed court proceedings against the government after being denied a warrant to practise as engineers.

Clint Caruana, Andrew Galea, Ryan Schembri, Brandon Spiteri and Kurt Spiteri filed a judicial protest against the Engineering Profession Board, Ministers Ian Borg and Owen Bonnici, MCAST and the State Advocate this morning.

 The five are representing a cohort of 154 engineering students.

Their lawyer, Robert Galea, argued that the students had followed the MCAST engineering course with the clear understanding that after successfully concluding their studies, they would be eligible to apply for, and be conferred, a warrant to practise the engineering profession in Malta.

But after finishing their course and obtaining the necessary qualifications, the five say they found many obstacles to being given their warrant and despite the passage of time and their insistence, they were finding only evasive replies as to why they weren’t being given their warrants.

This despite at least one of the five’s application for the warrant being accepted and processed and him being invited to sit for an interview. After this interview was over, he was later notified that he could not be awarded the warrant as he did not have the necessary qualifications.

Galea argued that this was a contradictory conclusion, as if the applicant had lacked the qualifications, this would have been picked up at the earliest stage and not after he was called for an interview.

The law states that engineering warrants are not exclusively awarded to university graduates, but also to equivalent qualifications from other academic institutions explained the lawyer. Both MCAST and university degrees are of MQF 6 level.

The lawyer urged the defendants to process the warrant applications without delay and warned that they would be held liable in damages in case of default.