An educational programme called Economics for Success, offered by the Junior Achievement Young Enterprise (JAYE) Malta Foundation, was recently launched at a ceremony at St Nicholas College Rabat Middle School.
The launch of the programme, and of the JAYE Malta Entrepreneurial Movement, was held during an event held to as part of the organisation’s ‘Celebrating 30’ anniversary campaign that was also attended by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo.
The Economics for Success programme is designed to help young students understand that the subjects they choose to take at secondary school level, which in turn will help determine their eventual career choices, should be based on inherent characteristics that drive and inspire them.
The programme provides interactive activities that engage students with the subject matter.
To further assist the students’ decision-making process the programme will also include live input by business facilitators who will share their experience and direct insight into the world of work. During these JAYE Malta Entrepreneurial Movement activities, business facilitators will deliver a series of educational programmes to 3,000 students across Malta.
Helps contaminate education with reality
Education Minister Bartolo said: “We live in a complex world, and if we empower students to have only the skills that formal education gives them, cut away from reality, it is not enough… Having these kind of events, bringing people from outside, bringing people from the world of business, having them volunteer, having them here talking to our students, helps contaminate education with reality, which is so important.
“I am grateful for initiatives like the JAYE Malta’s Entrepreneurial Movement because the best education is the one that prepares our students for the real world.”
Since 1988, when the organisation was established as Young Enterprise, over 9,000 local students have experienced what it means to start and run their own mini-business as part of the post-secondary Company Programme.
Thirty years down the line, the organisation – renamed Junior Achievement Young Enterprise following the merger between Junior Achievement World Wide and Young Enterprise Europe – is celebrating the evolution of entrepreneurship education in Malta. With an increased emphasis on labour market skills and occupational requirements, JAYE Malta has introduced experiential, learning-by-play and learning-by-doing programmes across the educational spectrum, starting at Year 4 for pupils aged seven and eight, all the way up to tertiary education.
For more information on the ‘Celebrating 30’ anniversary activities, visit the websites below, call JAYE Malta on 2124 5054 or e-mail info@jayemalta.org.
www.jayemalta.org
www.facebook.com/jayemalta