HSBC Malta Foundation underpinned its commitment to sustainable entrepreneurship and workforce development in Malta through its support of two entrepreneurship programmes run by Junior Achievement Malta Foundation.

The Company Programme is targeted for students aged 15 to17 and the Start-up Programme, for those students 18 and over. Both programmes, see several young companies competing for a chance to represent Malta at the Gen E Festival, Europe’s largest youth entrepreneurship festival. Both programmes reached their culmination last month with the final round and awards ceremony, where the aspiring entrepreneurs showcased their projects.

As part of the JA Worldwide Network – one of the world’s largest and most impactful youth-serving NGOs – JA Malta delivers hands-on, immersive learning experiences in work readiness, financial capability, and entrepreneurship, among others.

In addition to being one of the event’s main sponsors, HSBC Malta also played a key role in judging the projects, while also awarding a number of internships to participating students. For the second year running, HSBC has sponsored two awards aimed at sustainability – the Green Entrepreneurship Awards and the ESG Sustainability Award.

Both awards were presented to the winning teams by HSBC Malta’s Chief Executive Officer, Geoffrey Fichte who said: “HSBC recognises the vital role young entrepreneurs play in addressing today’s sustainability challenges. We are proud to support initiatives like these and to empower students to come up with innovative solutions to problems we all face”.

The HSBC Green Entrepreneurship Award recognised the team that presented the most innovative solution to a problem, and which best exemplified the principles of green entrepreneurship. The ESG Sustainability Award was won by the team that was able to incorporate the most sustainability strategies into their business.

On the night, h2Lo and Możaic were crowned winners of their respective categories, h2Lo with its innovative approach to marketing and distributing drinking bottles and Możaic with its adaptive clothing for children.

JA Malta CEO, Matthew Caruana, thanked all collaborators of the event, including HSBC Malta Foundation. In a message to all the attendees Caruana said “Let us believe in the power of education. Let us create the changes we want to see. Let’s give youths the much-needed self-efficacy”.

The HSBC Green Entrepreneurship Award was won by Colori’s colouring book for reducing stress, while the ESG Sustainability award went to Możaic.

HSBC also announced that for the seventh year it will be offering several summer internships to Junior Achievement students as part of its Future Skills strategy to train the next generation of leaders. This year’s positions will be filled by Matthew Borg, Daniel Robertson Philips and Daniel Sciberras.

HSBC Malta would like to congratulate JA Malta and all the participants for an outstanding competition and looks forward to further collaborations in the future.