After consultation with various stakeholders in the field of tourism and hospitality, the measure will come into effect where workers in the tourism and hospitality industry in Malta must be accredited through Skills Pass, and foreign workers will be able to work in our country only in this sector, if they have a Skills Pass.
To be given this Skills Pass, foreign workers coming from third countries must take a number of courses in their own country that include knowledge of the English language, providing basic customer service, learning about the tourist product Maltese and another course related to basic English in the hospitality industry.
The issuance of this Skills Pass will be done by the Institute for Tourist Studies in collaboration with the Identità agency. Without the aforementioned Skills Pass, citizens from third countries will not be able to apply for the single work permit issued by the Identity agency.
Citizens from third countries who have not yet started working in a tourism or hospitality establishment will need a Skills Pass within two months from when these regulations will come into force.
From January 2025 the regulations of the Skills Pass will apply to those people who are already in our country so that the latter have to do these courses before the single work permit is renewed.
From January of another two years, the Skills Pass regulations will start to apply to citizens coming from European Union countries.
These details were announced in a news conference addressed by the Minister for the Interior, Security and Work Byron Camilleri and the Minister for Tourism and Public Cleanliness Clayton Bartolo in the presence of the management of the Institute for Tourist Studies, the Identità agency, social partners and distinguished guests linked to the tourism industry.
The Minister Byron Camilleri called the Skills Pass as one of the measures aimed both to cut the abuse of workers and also to have a sieve in our country to ensure that only quality workers who contribute to the expansion come to work economic and in the labor market of our country. Without the Skills Pass citizens from third countries will not be granted a work permit by the Identità agency. From next January those workers who are already working in Malta with the single work permit and want to renew it must obtain the Skills Pass. “We are not stopping the iSkills Card process, but through the issuance of the visa, or with its renewal by Identità, we will be encouraging these workers to continue training and obtain more skilled trades in connection with the work they do,” said Minister Camilleri.
Minister Camilleri said that what is being done in the field of tourism will serve as a model for other sectors in the field of work in our country. The Government understands that Maltese companies need workers who are sometimes not accessible in the local market and will work to make them accessible, provided they are of quality.
Minister Clayton Bartolo pointed out how the integration of the Skills Pass in the hospitality industry is an opportunity. “If we want to see more quality in the tourist product, we want to see that our frontliners in this industry have the necessary abilities through which they make a difference in the experience of both the tourist but also the Maltese and the – Gozo. I am optimistic that in a few months we will start to see a better service. We understand that we have an ambitious reform ahead of us. We also understand that we will find challenges. But the choice to leave everything as it is, was never on our agenda. The tourism industry has a future ahead of it. Therefore, at present we must take care to be prepared for a future that will be made up of a tourism industry that offers higher quality on every level throughout the year,” stressed Minister Clayton Bartolo.
