Reducing illiteracy among youths was the central theme that had to be tackled during the third edition of the Social Innovation Challenge, an event hosted by Junior Achievement (Young Enterprise) Malta Foundation in collaboration with Microsoft Malta.

The one-day event at the Microsoft Innovation Centre at Skyparks, attracted over 60 students from 9 secondary state, church and private schools.  Malta Scouts Association also expressed their interest to compete, and for the second year their team represented their association. Participants included fifth form students, aged between 15 and 16 years old.

This yearly challenge looks at posing a compelling challenge to the participating students addressing societal needs. This year the student were faced with the challenge of decreasing illiteracy amongst youths. 

For the third time running, Microsoft Malta hosted this event at the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Skyparks and Microsoft employees also volunteered to mentor the teams. Furthermore the students also utilized Microsoft's resources and technology to present their project to the rest of the participants. The teams were also assisted by their respective teachers as well as by the JA-YE team. The winners of the day's challenge were each given a Windows phone, and a trophy to be kept by the School.

"This is possibly the main annual event all of the Microsoft Malta team looks forward to," said Angela Micallef, Citizenship Manager for Microsoft Malta. "At Microsoft we take our Community Affairs very seriously and believe that youths are the key to our future. Such events give us the opportunity to not only support local youths but also to learn from their perspective.  In order for our initiatives to be as impactful globally and locally it is imperative for us to do so.  Today we mentored the youths through our business experience and also the utilisation of the business tools. On the other hand they inspired us with their creativity and fresh approach to targeting certain societal issues. We are also happy that for the second year AIESEC joined forces with us to support young students through mentoring.  Seeing youths giving back to the community from such a young age inspires us to continue the hard work we do locally."

Students were given access to hardware as well as access to the Office 365 platform with which to build their 'solution' and their final presentation.

"When young people are challenged outside of their classroom environment and are trusted with proposing ways how to address problems they relate to, they are very capable of coming up with very interesting solutions especially when these solutions are aimed at young people like them. This was very apparent during the JA-YE Social Innovation Challenge supported by Microsoft where young students from different walks of life rose to the occasion and proved their worth through teamwork and enthusiasm," commented Julian Azzopardi CEO of Junior Achievement (Young Enterprise) Malta Foundation.

"Events like this are ideal ways to educate and motivate young people as well as to involve direct participation from their educators. Teachers know their students and know how to encourage them to venture outside the comfort zone of their classroom and we were delighted to have their collaboration into making this event a successful and memorable one for the students," added Julian Azzopardi.

At events such as the JA-YE Social Innovation Challenge, students learn the basics in creative thinking and problem solving, and are encouraged to break away from the constraints of what may be considered as obvious solutions. In the spirit of entrepreneurship, students put into practice JA-YE's principle of "Learning by Doing", to help them develop their interpersonal, as well as problem solving skills and learn to work under tight deadlines.

"People who can innovate and think innovatively, have the power to bring change in their community and in the world. It is estimated that technology will allow three billion new voices to enter into the innovation discussion between 2010 and 2020. But having access to information and technology is not enough. People need to be motivated and inspired to innovate. Today's education is evolving to enable more creativity. It's this creativity which will open the doors to future innovation. This one-day event is one such example of how education is evolving and going beyond school grounds to enable youths to learn from new sources." concluded Angela Micallef.

The participating teams came from San Andrea School, St Clare's College, St Gorg Preca College, St Ignatius College, St Margaret College, St Martins College, Savio College, the Scouts Association of Malta and Verdala International School.  

For more information on JA-YE Malta Foundation email [email protected]