The St Aloysius College Young Enterprise team,  Concentr8, with Emidio Friggieri, Minister for Education and Employment Evarist Bartolo, Tonio Axisa , HSBC Bank Malta CEO Mark Watkinson , and Junior Achievement (Young Enterprise) Malta Foundation Chairman, David Pace

The Junior Achievement (Young Enterprise) Malta Foundation would like to congratulate the winners of the HSBC Company of the Year Programme, Concentr8 from St Aloysius College, who will be representing Malta in the European Finals, to be held in Tallinn, Estonia, in July.

They will be competing with a mobile app, ‘Distract Me’, which aims to give students that extra boost to help retain focus and improve their quality of studying and learning while continuing to enjoy their favourite devices.

The night also presented the first runners-up, MAFD (Making A Future Difference) with their mobile app ‘MeStories’, from G.F.AbelaJunior College, and the second runners-up, Platinum, with their website ‘MaltEasy’, from St Martin’s College.

This year teams from the schools of G.F.AbelaJunior College, Sir M.A. Refalo (Gozo), St Aloysius, Verdala International, De La Salle and St Martin’s College participated. These were Bridge Studios, Charged, Code-X, Concentr8, Eventfull, FIT, GloBuds, Locate It, MAFD (Making a Future Difference) and Platinum.  It was a record year for Applications and web-based services.

The signature awards were presented as follows:

The Best Business Plan Award supported by Deloitte – won by Concentr8, St Aloysius College;

The Best use of Technology Award supported by Playmobil – won by Code-X, Sir M.A. Refalo Post-Secondary School, Gozo;

The Best Implementation of Marketing & Sales Strategies Award supported by CIM – won by MAFD, G.F. Abela Junior College;

The Best HR & Operations Award supported by Farsons – won by Platinum, St Martin’s College;

The Social Enterprise Award supported by Microsoft – Won by Concentr8;

The Adpro Award for Best Quality System supported by Adpro Instruments Ltd. – won by Concentr8;

Firstrunner-up Adpro Award for Best Quality System – won by Fit, De La Salle College;

Second runner-up Adpro Award for Best Quality System – won by MAFD;

The Best Presentation Award supported by Vsquared – won by MAFD; and

The Best Presented Financial Statements Award supported by Deloitte – won by MAFD.

Deloitte also chose two students for a summer internship – Daniel Galea from Junior College and Kurt Sultana from St Aloysius College.

Apart from these awards, Mr Josef Camilleri, Head of Corporate Sustainability at HSBC Bank Malta, was also recognised with the John Harper Award for his long-serving commitment and contribution towards the organisation.

This event was attended by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo.

Learning by doing is the principal by which all students should develop their careers – this is the main focus of Junior Achievement (Young Enterprise) Malta Foundation. The organisation has several programmes, ranging from Primary levels upwards, but the HSBC Company Programme can be considered the flagship programme of the organisation.  By encouraging students aged 16-18 to run their own companies, the Company Programme not only gives them valuable experience but also brings out skills which will serve them well in their future working life.

Through this experience students set up their own company, raise share capital, launch and market their idea, which they present to the local market.  To assess the teams, a panel of judges go through a series of disciplines which cover the sales skills students display during an annual fair set up for this purpose, an annual report which the students complete at the end of the programme, a face-to-face interview, and ending with a presentation in front of a sizeable audience. These experiences help students in their development beyond the traditional textbook and schoolroom education.  Students face real life working situations, which few experience outside this programme.  Many alumni of this programme have continued their careers and set up their own businesses as a result of this experience.

Development of personal skills, team spirit, knowledge and understanding of how businesses function, and the ability to apply lessons learnt to new situations were evident in the presentations given by the students, which were positively appreciated and endorsed by the audience present, among which a number of business persons.

JA-YE Malta would like to congratulate all The HSBC Company Programme participants for reaching this milestone at their tender age.

For further information about the programme, visit our website: http://cp.youngenterprise.org.mt or contact us through e-mail: info@youngenterprise.org.mt, or on 21244991.