EPALE, the Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe, is a multilingual open membership community for professionals working in adult learning across Europe. It provides a space for adult learning professionals and stakeholders to share content, news, resources, events, and best practices. Malta, through the Directorate for Lifelong Learning and Employability (DLE), has been an active participant in EPALE since its inception, contributing significantly to its rich content and collaborative environment. This year marks EPALE’s 10th Anniversary, celebrating a decade of fostering adult education and professional development across the continent.
Malta’s National Support Service (NSS) for EPALE has demonstrated exceptional performance, with recent Q2 2025 analytics confirming positive performance across the board. The registration of new users, combined with the engagement of active users has seen Malta rank 2nd overall in the promotion of the platform.
This positive uptake of the platform meant higher visibility for the two major projects conducted by the DLE Projects team in 2025, including the EPALE Awards and the Non-Formal Learning Opportunities Funding Scheme. These were promoted on EPALE and were the top two pages for Q2 by a significant margin. These pages had 12,933 and 8,740 views respectively, with the 3rd top post by an EPALE user having 4,106 views.
The EPALE Malta Awards 2025 is the 5th Edition which are an initiative specific to Malta. The awards aim to recognise the effort in Adult Learning across five categories. After the submission of a record breaking seventy-nine nominations, fifteen finalists were called to interviews, with the winners announced during a ceremony to be held on the 29th October 2025.
The Non-Formal Learning Opportunities Funding Scheme aims to promote diverse learning opportunities outside traditional classroom settings. After an evaluation process and publication of results, twenty organisations received funding to create a range of sessions taking place until December 2025. The sessions include arts & crafts, culture, history, archiving, sports, communication and soft skills, as well as religious organisations.
Looking ahead, EPALE in Malta, supported by DLE, continues to grow as well as provide learning initiatives that support and sustain Adult Learning in Malta. More information about EPALE can be accessed on https://epale.ec.europa.eu/mt and Lifelong Learning on www.lifelonglearning.gov.mt.
