Starling, a Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Malta Foundation (JAYE Malta) company, represented Malta at the 27th Junior Achievement Europe Company of the Year competition in Lucerne, Switzerland. As winners of the national JAYE Malta Company Programme – offered to students undertaking post-secondary education – the Starling company was one of 40 teams from 36 countries that meet annually to showcase their products and highlight their entrepreneurial journey to various panels of experienced business jurists.
Over 400 students, JAYE staff, teachers and advisers were involved in this three-day competition, which was presided over by the president of the Swiss Confederation, Johann Schneider-Ammann.
JAYE Malta is a non-government, non-profit organisation promoting entrepreneurship education, employability skills and financial literacy. Starling won the coveted JAYE Malta’s HSBC Company of the Year award, as well as Best Implementation of Marketing & Sales Strategies Award, presented by CIM Malta.
Over a period of one scholastic year, Starling created its mini-company and launched The Innovase Collection by using rejected or discarded wine bottles. This collection comprises upcycled wine bottles turned into contemporary decoration pieces through handmade designs.
The Maltese delegation consisted of the seven student entrepreneurs: Samuel Sciberras (managing director), Kay Lee Micallef (company secretary), Samuel Bonello (finance director), Nicola Micallef (HR director), Jake Bartolo (operations director), Sophie Gatt (marketing director) and Miguel Pellegrini Petit (sales director), as well at the St Aloysius College link teacher Keith Sammut and two JAYE Malta staff.
“The opportunity to start up and run our own company is something many wish for and we can call ourselves lucky to achieve it. Junior Achievement Young Enterprise has given us the proper platform from which to operate our business. Through a step-by-step approach we gained the necessary skills and experience to become confident entrepreneurs in the real world of business,” said Mr Pellegrini Petit on behalf of his team members.
SubReader, a student mini-company from Denmark won JA Europe Company of the Year after impressing the judges with their strong business concept. SubReader created an app which works independently of any set-up to help dyslexic people read subtitles on international TV and movies through synchronised interpretation.
JAYE Malta CEO Julian Azzopardi stressed the importance of giving increased access to such events to Maltese youth as “it brings them face to face with the reality of the market’s competitiveness. They understand that their business is not solely local but also global and the success they achieve is dependent on how well they can adapt, seek and reinvent themselves according to new market opportunities available. We are proud to have been supporting Maltese youth for over 28 years and thank all our partners who make participation at these events possible”.
For more information, contact the national coordinator, Analise Sammut, on asammut@youngenterprise.org.mt, visit www.youngenterprise.org.mt, e-mail info@youngenterprise.org.mt or call 2124 4991.