More young foreigners have tertiary education than locals

Half of Malta’s foreign-born individuals aged between 25 and 34 have completed tertiary education compared to a third of the country’s nationals in the same age group.

These figures emerge from the newly launched National Strategic Action Plan for Further and Higher Education 2022-2030, which says they highlight Malta’s reliance on foreign workers to plug the skills gap in the economy.  

The statistics show that 64% of EU nationals and 46% of third-country nationals between 25 and 34 years of age have attained tertiary qualifications.

Meanwhile, 33% of Maltese youth have completed a tertiary level course. The number of individuals with tertiary level qualifications in the whole population of that age group has jumped from 30 to 40% between 2013 and 2020.

But the improvement is largely due to the arrival of EU nationals in the labour market, the strategy document says.

“This highlights Malta’s high reliance on foreigners to meet skills shortages and sustain economic growth.”

Progress has been made among Malta’s native-born population: in 2009 only 22% of 25- to 34-year-olds had tertiary education attainment, rising to 31% by 2019.

However, the figure is still significantly lower...