The Hon. Speaker, Dr Anglu Farrugia presided the official Launch of the Master in Contemporary Family studies, held on Thursday the 11th of July, 2019 at the House of Representatives, Parliament Buiding Valletta.
The Master in Contemporary Family Studies course aims towards training professionals interested in working with families not only at the level of practice - for example in Leap Centres, in schools, in health settings, but also to gain competence at conducting research about families and also at working at policy level ,for example - supporting the House of Representatives’ Social Affairs and Family committees and the Office of the Speaker, the Office of the Child Commissioner and other entities like the National Statistics Office, Leap Centres and also the National Auditing Organisation.
In launching a new version of the course, the Department included an Internship that will give students the opportunity to apply what they will be learning. We have also sought to invest more time in training our students to be more knowledgeable in conducting research and in how to assess and evaluate policies. All these will help increase the employability prospects of our graduates.
The launch of the course was supported by Prof Andrew Azzopardi, Dean, Faculty for Social Wellbeing. The Head of Department, Dr Clarissa Sammut Scerri emphasised the dept’s priority to continue in investing in close collaboration between the University, and the community at large , outlinining some of the Department’s research and teaching portfolio including the training of family therapists and the training of family studies practitioners, researchers and scholars. Ms Claire Casha, the course coordinator gave the floor a succint overview of what the course consists of. Two graduates of the course, Ms Debbie Atanasio and Ms Maria Fava gave a testimonial of their experience of the course.
Key stake holders amongst whom Mr Etienne Caruana, Acting Director General, National Statistics Office, Ms Claire Sammut, Director, Foundation for Social Welfare Services and Ms Therese Ellul, Programme Manager, Foundational for Educational Services gave their useful contribution about what qualities they expect from graduates of this course and how the department can collaborate on future projects.
Prof Angela Abela, from the Department of Family Studies, the founding member of the then Centre for Family Studies, now Department of Family studies, emphasised the need for the Department and the entities to work together on important projects like the “Positive Parenting Strategy” as a way of investing in today’s and tomorrow’s families.
Hon. Dr Evarist Bartolo, Minister for Education and Employment and Hon Claudio Grech, Member of Parliament, Opposition also supported this launch by their presence and contribution.
Graduates who are interested in pursuing this degree are encouraged to click the following link https://www.um.edu.mt/newspoint/news/features/2019/06/masterincontemporaryfamilystudies/_nocache and apply by the 25th of July, 14.00 hrs. For further information, write to
clarissa.sammut-scerri@um.edu.mt