In 2006, ten unskilled young job seekers from the Cottonera area were sent on a three week placement with the BBC Training and Development Centre in the UK. This project, launched in November 2005, was led by the ETC and was awarded a total grant of €13,191 under the Leonardo da Vinci II Programme (2000-2006). Participants were given a comprehensive foundation of practical skills and technical knowledge, as well as exposure with audiovisual equipment.
The project theme was chosen since a number of young persons from the Cottonera area look for employment with preference for posts in audiovisual production. Before embarking on this project, ETC launched a training course that was delivered by a number of local audiovisual production houses together with ETC. This cooperation helped to improve and create more vocational training opportunities in the local A/V sector.
During the recent launch of the Lifelong Learning Programme in Berlin, this project was also identified by the European Commission as being one of 20 outstanding Leonardo projects.
At the end of their work placement in the UK, some of the participants were actually employed by Maltese audiovisual production houses. The ETC currently in negotiations with other production houses to identify job opportunities for the rest of the group.