FROM ACADEMIC TO VOCATIONAL: THE REBRANDING OF TEXTILES STUDIES IN MALTA

The Ministry of Education and Employment in Malta recently launched a policy to introduce vocational education in secondary schools. The policy documents Learning Outcomes Framework (2015) and My Journey - Achieving through different paths (2016) brought about very significant reforms in the structure of the Maltese educational system. The policy in the latter document aimed to facilitate the introduction of a more equitable quality education within secondary schools. As from 2019, this new proposed model shall offer applied and vocational learning programmes as optional subjects alongside the compulsory core subjects, with the intention of enabling students to reach their full potential. This reform required considerable investment in preparation for the implementation phase. This paper presents a case study of Textiles Studies, an academic subject being phased out from the secondary school curriculum but which shall be introduced as a vocational subject under the name of Textiles and Fashion. It will form part of a group of eleven Vocational Education and Training (VET) subject-areas which shall all be offered as from the scholastic year 2019-20. The paper shall delve into the challenges faced during the planning and preparatory stages, before the subject is actually introduced in schools. It shall highlight the rationale behind the shift of the subject from the academic to the vocational domain, outline the designing of the learning outcomes and discuss issues related to the training and retraining of the subject’s teachers. It will also provide a hypothesis, based on the subject’s past curriculum history, on how the rebranding process will impact the status of the subject in schools and affect the immediate stakeholders, i.e. students and teachers.