Managing Skills Pass certificates across your team

Building a compliance record

The official employer portal at tourism.skillspass.org.mt holds the authoritative record of registrations and certifications made through it. That record is your primary reference — but it reflects only what has been formally registered and processed. A supplementary internal log gives you a faster working view across your team and lets you track items that the portal may not automatically surface, such as occupation changes or upcoming renewals.

For each employee in a covered role, your internal compliance record should include at a minimum:

• Employee name and the covered occupation they hold the certificate for.
• Skills Pass certificate reference number.
• Date the certificate was issued.
• Date your employer-side verification was last performed.
• Any occupation-change dates, with the replacement certificate reference.

Review this log whenever your team changes — a new hire, a departure, a role change, or a temporary reassignment to a different covered position.

Occupation changes and the €107.50 fee

When an employee moves to a different covered role within your establishment, their existing Skills Pass certificate does not carry over. A new occupation-specific Skills Pass is required for the new position. Per published guidance, the fee for an occupation change is €107.50.

Treat an occupation change as triggering the same pre-start obligation as a new hire: verify that the updated certificate is in place before the employee begins working in the new role — not after they have already started. The occupation they were certified for and the occupation they are actually working in must match.

Verify the current occupation-change fee at the official portal before communicating it to employees — fee schedules may change.

Staff turnover

When a certified employee leaves your establishment, their Skills Pass certificate belongs to them, not to the establishment. You cannot transfer a former employee’s certificate to their replacement. When they are replaced in the covered role:

• Verify the new hire’s certificate before their first shift. A replacement who does not yet hold a Skills Pass for the covered occupation cannot legally begin in that role — see how to verify a certificate.
• Update your internal compliance record. Remove the former employee and add the replacement’s certificate details once verified.
• If there is a gap between the departure and the replacement starting, ensure that no uncertified person is deployed into the covered role in the interim.

Seasonal and part-time staff

The Skills Pass requirement applies regardless of contract type. Seasonal workers, part-time employees, and casual staff engaged in covered roles at MTA-licensed establishments are all within scope. There is no published exemption based on hours worked, contract duration, or seasonal engagement.

For establishments with significant seasonal turnover, this creates a recurring certification management task each season. Build the time required for registration and assessment into your seasonal hiring timeline — not as an afterthought once staff have already started. The typical process takes several weeks, and re-sits extend it further.

Using the employer portal

The employer-facing section of tourism.skillspass.org.mt provides functionality for registering and tracking candidates. The specific features available — including what you can view, search, and export — are subject to change as the portal develops. Rather than relying on a description of portal features that may be out of date, check the portal directly for its current employer-facing functionality.

At a minimum, use the portal to:

• Register new staff for certification in their covered occupation.
• Register occupation changes for existing certified staff.
• Verify certificate status for workers in your team.

Official Skills Pass portal