24 achievers lead the way for a day
On 5 October, 24 young people and top executives of some of Malta’s most respected businesses met to exchange their views on how to run a company, thanks to the Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Malta Foundation (JAYE Malta) Leaders for a Day initiative (L4D). During the day, these achievers were invited to attend departmental and board meetings, participate in team discussions, engage with employees and share their views on various strategic and operational processes in the business they visited. A number of participants were also shown around different regional hubs and offices operated by some of the larger businesses, whilst others had the opportunity to attend employee training and industry-specific seminars.
Samuel Bonello, a sixth-former at St Aloysius College who spent the day with HSBC Bank Malta CEO Andrew Beane, described it as a “Once in a lifetime experience, learning stuff you cannot learn in the classroom.” Justine Barbara, from De La Salle College sixth form, who was side-by-side with Green Skips Malta joint managing director Mary Gaerty for the day, said it was an experience that “inspired me to never give up on my dreams”!
The initiative was not only beneficial to the young participants but also to the more accomplished executive, an opinion shared by P. Cutajar Ltd CEO Denis Zammit Cutajar, who “enjoyed sharing opinions with the student” and Genevieve Abela, FELTOM Malta CEO, who commented that whilst being “an absolute pleasure working with young people”, it had also allowed her the time to “stop and consider my day in relation to sharing with others”.
The event concluded with a closing ceremony attended by Education and Employment Minister Evarist Bartolo and HE Al Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani from Qatar, who made a special appearance and addressed the young people present. During the ceremony a Declaration of Intent was signed by all those present as an affirmation of the need to promote handson entrepreneurship education as offered through the JAYE Malta Company Programme and initiatives such as L4D.
“We are thrilled with the response from the business community and participants for this first initiative. It was a jam-packed day offering tomorrow’s leaders an exceptional, all-access pass into the world of work today! We thank all the companies, CEOs, and staff who contributed to making this initiative a memorable one for the young participants and look forward to next year’s activity” said JAYE Malta CEO Julian Azzopardi.
Being held for the first time in collaboration with the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, and CORE, L4D is offered to participants who have successfully completed the JAYE Malta Company Programme and obtained the Entrepreneurial Skills PassTM (ESP) certification, an exclusive JAYE certification of their entrepreneurial acumen and attitude recognised throughout Europe. Contact JAYE Malta on info@youngenterprise.org.mt or 2124 4991 for more information on the Company Programme or L4D.