Mixables, a team from Junior College, has won the HSBC 14th Young Enterprise Company of the Year Award, while two St Aloysius College teams, Xpertease and Expressions, placed second and third respectively.
Mixables will now be competing at the European finals in Paris, where it will meet teams from 20 European countries.
It is the second consecutive time that a Junior College team has won the competition. Maltese teams have fared exceptionally well in the international competition with three wins in the past 10 years.
The winning company was announced on Saturday at the HSBC Young Enterprise Competition finals at the Mediterranean Conference Centre.
The award was presented by Education Minister Louis Galea, while HSBC chief executive officer Tom Robson presented the winners and the runner-up with a plaque to commemorate their success.
This year saw 18 YE companies from various post-secondary schools taking part in the Learning By Doing experience. The students set up their own company, chose their product, or service, manufactured it and sold it to the public in local and foreign trade fairs.
The teams were shortlisted to six during the semi-finals night held on Friday. The other three semi-finalists were In Control representing St Edward's College, Flintstonz from De La Salle College and Stepping Stone from St Aloysius College.
HSBC Bank Malta also presented the Best Business Plan award to Expressions from St Aloysius College.
Other awards presented on the night included the Best Stand at the Trade Fair Award, won by Xpertease; Zenith, a team from St Aloysius College won the Humanitarian Award, the Most Innovative Product Award and the Award for the Best Use of Technology.
Inertia won the Award for the Best Implementation of the Marketing Strategy, Xpertease won the Best Financial System Award and Mixables won the Best Quality System Award.
The Best Product Award was given to Twistrips, a team from Verdala International School, while Illusions won the Most Popular Team Award.
The Chairman's Award, which has been re-named the John Harper Award - after the late John Harper, Young Enterprise Malta's long-serving chairman and also president of Young Enterprise Europe - was won by HairBe from the Hairdressing and Beauty Therapy School.
It was presented by YEM chairman Michael Cutugno, who spoke about the importance of the YE experience both on a national level, as well as internationally.
He said Young Enterprise Europe has decided to merge with Junior Achievement in Europe. The new organisation would grow from the present 19 member countries to 36, making it one of the largest youth organisations in Europe. The programme offered would also cover the ages of five to 22, rather than just 16 to 18 as it stands today.