The internationalisation of the education sector discussed at a TradeMalta seminar

Representatives from over 20 companies operating in the Maltese education sector attended a half-day internationalisation seminar organised by TradeMalta last Thursday the 13th of June. The business seminar explored the developments and opportunities of internationalising educational services. Key issues which emerged were the importance of clustering between different players in the sector, the benefits of having a holistic vision and building a Malta brand for educational services. Other issues raised were the elimination of barriers such as issuing of student visas, and the need for a national strategy on the internationalisation of the education sector.

TradeMalta opened the seminar with a presentation about their new information services. TradeMalta’s new Internationalisation Knowledge Platform offers free access to leading international databases, e-learning programmes and strategic reports which specifically target the needs of Maltese companies seeking to operate at an international level.

The first guest speaker was Mr. Bernard Mallia from Equinox Group. He presented the findings from two reports commissioned by TradeMalta which assessed the international opportunities for the education sector in emerging markets. Mr. James Perry, CEO of the Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations in Malta (FELTOM) presented an overview of the latest developments and potential growth opportunities for the English Language sector. Mr. Stephen Vella, General Manager of the Gateway to Industry Programme at MCAST, provided valuable insights on employing alternative approaches to internationalisation, whilst Mr. Stephen D’Alessandro, Director of Advenio eAcademy explored the prospects of online education.

An intervention by Mr. Ronald Micallef, non-resident ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union, offered some first-hand advice to Maltese education providers interested in exploring the African market.

The seminar included a panel discussion amongst the main speakers, which turned out to be an interactive session including the audience. The panel, moderated by Joe Schembri, brought to the fore topics such as the link between training courses and job prospects, the use of on-line content before and after a course is taken, the accent on quality for long term sustainability of the sector as well as the need to mitigate costs from rising disproportionately.

TradeMalta’s CEO, Anton Buttigieg, closed the seminar with an invitation to all education providers to come forward to discuss how the agency can help companies find new international markets.

This seminar is co-funded through the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) – Operational Programme I 2014-2020 – ‘Fostering a competitive and sustainable economy to meet our challenges’.

To learn of upcoming events and access other TradeMalta services, register on trademalta.org or call on 2247 2400.