This is the second consecutive time that Switzerland has won the much-coveted European award. PrimeCut’s product was a belt produced from old newspaper from various countries.
R@, a team from Estonia placed second – the first time Estonia ever placed in the first three in this final competition – while a team from Sweden, Presnatch, placed third.
Malta was represented by Solutions, a team from Junior College that won the HSBC Young Enterprise National Final Competition on Wednesday. The team produced waste separation bins and an SMS service for Junior College students informing them of postponed and cancelled lectured and the daily list of teachers who reported sick.
Just before presenting the award to the Swiss team, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said the final presentations of each country showed the great experience the youth gained through this business venture. He expressed his sincere gratitude to Young Enterprise Malta for offering this much-needed experience to Maltese students. Dr Gonzi praised the students for their hard work and commitment, adding that they will reap the benefits of the experience gained through the Young Enterprise programme later on in their lives when they choose their career.
Dr Gonzi also praised the large number of volunteers who formed part of the organising committee of this European event. He thanked the various companies that support ed this event, especially HSBC Bank Malta plc, Young Enterprise Malta’s main sponsors, as well as PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Intercomp.
The European event was hosted in Malta this year. This saw delegations from 24 countries coming to Malta to participate in this final competition. The students started arriving in Malta on Thursday and had a packed schedule of activities. On Friday the participating team met the judges and started rehearsing their presentations on the stage at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, where the event was held.
This was the first time the event has been held since the merger of Junior Achievement Europe and Young Enterprise Europe, which saw the participating countries increasing considerably.
Officials who attended the European event held in Malta included the chairman and chief executive officer of Junior Achievement – Young Enterprise Europe Jorgen Clausen and Caroline Jenner. The chairman of the executive committee Michel Brull also attended.
The last time a Maltese team won this prestigious European Award was in 2002 through a team from Junior College called Mixables. The last time this European final competition was hosted by Malta was in 1998 when a Maltese team from St Aloysius College won the award. This was certainly an eventful year for Young Enterprise Malta following the recruitment of a new chief executive officer, Mark Farrugia, and a new programme coordinator, Rachelle Tabone. This year also saw the election of Josef Camilleri as Young Enterprise Malta’s new chairman.
Young Enterprise Malta will now start preparing to recruit first-year students from the various sixth forms in Malta for next year’s company programme. A YE company’s life starts at the beginning of the scholastic year when students come together to set up their own company, produce a product, market it and sell it using real money and real shareholders. The company then goes through the liquidation process in May and the companies then participate in the final competition for the best company to be chosen to represent Malta abroad.