1. Lifelong learning and accessibility for migrant adult learners
Mario Cardona
Directorate for Lifelong Learning and Early School Leavers

2. Lifelong learning as growth
Education cannot have all the solutions to society’s problems.
Education cannot have all the solutions to people’s problems.
But learning is key to people reaching their fulfillment, wherever they are.
Learning is synonymous with growth, personal development in its wider sense.

3. Lifelong learning as possibility
For Maltese adults lifelong learning means
Getting the qualifications one has failed to obtain in compulsory education
Learning new things for better job prospects
Learning new things to re-enter the labour market after a period of parenthood and home-making
Learning a new language in order to be able to communicate with family and friends
Satisfying the need to meet people and socialise

4. Developing one’s creative abilities
Following particular personal interests in crafts, arts, languages, personal and social skills
Equipping oneself with the skills for community involvement and participation
Lifelong learning also means learning from participation in social, cultural and economic activity
Learning from family life
Learning from the workplace
Learning from participation in civil society

5. Lifelong learning as access
For migrants of all origins, arriving in Malta may be a shock, a possible new start in life, a stepping stone towards another promised land, an open prison, heaven or hell.
Some would want to try making a new life, find a good job, have enough money to live a decent life, many would want to make friends, to have a future, to become human, constantly more human

6. For all these persons learning and education offer new possibilities.
Some can afford to go to day courses, at MCAST or maybe ITS.
Others are lucky to have a job and invest time and energy in evening classes of the Adult Education Unit (AEU), MCAST, NGOs.

7. Participation in AEU courses
MFL Level 1
368
MFL Level 2 94
EFL Level 1
266
EFL Level 2
138
Maltese Entry Level (basic) 18
English Entry Level (basic) 44
English MQF 1 27
English MQF 2 17
English Sec. 92
English Advanced 29
English Conversation 84

8. Italian MQF 1
100
Italian MQF 2 23
Italian Sec. 15
Spanish MQF 1 54
Spanish MQF 2 18
Spanish Sec. 6
German MQF 1 42
German MQF 2 8
German Sec. 5
Italian Conversation 13
Spanish Conversation
French MQF 1 38
French Level 2 7
French Sec. 2
French Conversation 10

9. Living & Working in Malta(non EU nationals) 53
Computer Awareness 10
Internet awareness 7
ECDL 25
Living & Working in Malta(non EU nationals) 53
MFL Level 1(short course, non EU nationals) 20
Personal Empowerment
Automotive Engineering 4

10. Lifelong learning as opening up
The AEU has to face the challenge of
Knowing the foreigner
Knowing his or her needs, aspirations, dreams and fears
Knowing how to best speak his or her language
Catering for his or her needs in the most diverse of ways, mainly by co-operating with migrant NGOs
Training Adult Educators to adopt an adequate pedagogy

11. “I had returned to learn as many languages as possible
“I had returned to learn as many languages as possible. Many languages badly rather than one correctly. As long as I could communicate with everybody, get to know people and new problems, feel amused at the sacred boundaries of the homelands.” Lorenzo Milani

12. Directorate for Lifelong Learning and Early School Leaving
Thank you!
Mario Cardona
Directorate for Lifelong Learning and Early School Leaving
Lifelong Learning Courses Malta & Gozo, Early School Leaving