The Junior Achievement Malta (JA Malta) Awards Night, held at the University Campus in Valletta on May 14, awarded the hard work of Sixth Form students, who participated in the post-secondary Company Programme and the tertiary level Start-up Programme in the past eight months.
The two winning teams were EasyBeads, who won the Company of the Year Award, and Plastoplex, winners of the Start-up of the Year Award.
The winning teams will represent Malta in the European finals in July, competing against 42 other countries.
Several Company Programme awards were distributed on the night both to teams that made it to the finals, as well as to those that didn’t reach the final stage but showed promise in certain elements of their journey.
Apollo won the Deloitte Best Business Plan Award; Virescent were awarded the HSBC Green Entrepreneurship Award; while EasyBeads took home the Farsons Ready for Work, EFQ Management Quality Excellence Award and the Atlas Digital Marketing Innovation Award.
The finalists for the Company Programme were: Aquaponica, Bestja, BodYou, EasyBeads, Totelly and Virescent. Virescent came in as first runner-up and BodYou took the second runner-up position.
The evening also recognised the Start-up Programme companies, namely Elev8, IrCab, Plastopex, PotCo, S.A.P and Spring.
Similarly, honours for the Start-Up Programme were awarded to teams that made the final six, but also to other teams that participated in the programme.
The HSBC ESG Sustainability Award and Switch Take Me to Market Award were presented to Spring. Start-up company Covered were awarded the EY Concept Validation Award, while College Ltd took home the Camilleri Preziosi Customer Focus Award and the Tech.mt Digital Innovation Award. IrCab and Spring were announced as the Start-Up of the Year runners-up.
JA Malta chairperson Chris Vassallo Cesareo (right), Malta Chamber CEO Marthese Portelli (second from left) and Gregory Inglott from HSBC (left) with the Plastoplex team, winners of the Start-Up of the Year Award.Two other important awards are also presented each year: former JA Malta board member Anton Borg received the John Harper Award and Christian Mercieca accepted the Philip Bonnet Award for Perseverance.
In his speech, JA Malta chairperson Chris Vassallo Cesareo said Malta had been listed as a model organisation within JA Malta for the past four years: it won the first ever BAFCG Global Challenge award and was nominated for the Bata Quality award.
“The role JA Malta plays in the development of young people as they approach the working world is undeniable. JA Malta’s work is even more important in the light of the fact that the current academic system still does not place enough emphasis on certain soft skills. We must remember that the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow,” he said.
During the evening, JA Malta CEO Matthew Caruana announced the rebranding of the organisation from Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Malta (JAYE Malta) to Junior Achievement Malta (JA Malta) to align with the JA global network.
JA Malta thanked all sponsors and supporters of the programme, specifically its corporate sponsors: HSBC Malta Foundation, Salesforce, The Malta Chamber, JobsPlus, Grinsens, Atlas Insurance, Microsoft, Camilleri Preziosi Advocates and Cybergate.
Gratitude and recognition also went to all other sponsors: BusinessLabs, Farsons Group, Malta Enterprise, Santa Cristina, S. Rausi Trading Limited, Antinori, EY, Tech.mt, Switch, Deloitte, EFQ Management Consultants, and educational sponsor Oxford College of Marketing.
For more information, visit www.jayemalta.org.
The JA Malta teams during the awards night.