Education and Employment Minister Dolores Cristina recently inaugurated a new gym, equipped with professional physical training equipment worth over €80,000, at the MCAST Main Campus in Paola.

The gym will be offering high quality physical training facilities to all MCAST students and staff. This investment is in line with the College’s efforts to promote healthier lifestyles among its students and staff.

Similarly, MCAST’s Sports Department organises many different events where students and staff can practise different types of sports, from football and basketball to abseiling, canoeing and mountain biking.

The College is recruiting gym instructors to assist students and staff while using the gym facilities. All works required to refurbish the building where the gym is located were carried out by MCAST’s team of maintenance staff.

MCAST students enrolled in the Institute of Community Services’ full-time sports courses will be particularly benefitting from the new gym, which will provide them with another opportunity to acquire hands-on experience in different aspects related to a career in sports and physical training.

The students will practise what they learn in class through placements as gym instructors and by assisting the students and staff during their training, just like they would be doing in other sports facilities once they graduate and seek employment in this sector.

Over 115 students completed MCAST courses specialising in sports and fitness in the last four years. MCAST’s Institute of Community Services offers two courses for students aspiring for careers in this sector – the MCAST-BTEC Diploma in Sport (Level 3) and the MCAST-BTEC Extended Diploma in Sport (Development, Coaching and Fitness) (Level 4).

Through these courses, students can prepare themselves for careers as gym instructors, coaches and assistants to Physical Education teachers. MCAST also offers several part-time courses related to sports, including evening classes in sports psychology, which are scheduled to begin this September.

During the inauguration ceremony, Minister Cristina explained that the new gym confirms the Government’s commitment to promoting sports and physical activity. “While the drafting of a new national policy on sports is well underway, we have recently also launched new scholarships for students wishing to specialise their studies in sports, and in October we’ll be opening a new Sports School,” the Minister said.

MCAST Principal and CEO Prof. Maurice Grech thanked the staff who worked on this project and explained that the new gym facilities will eventually form part of a larger sports complex that is being planned in the new MCAST Campus, which is currently under construction in the same area.

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