Young Enterprise Malta (YEM) is a key player in the provision of enterprise education in Malta. YEM provides students with a practical insight into entrepreneurship, and through its programmes, helps students grow and develop the skills necessary to face tomorrow’s challenges.

As a non-profit, non-governmental organisation, YEM finances its operations and programmes through the generous financial support of its main sponsor HSBC Bank Malta and other sponsorship partners. HSBC, over the past four years, has provided more than Lm55,000 in support for Young Enterprise as well as a number of staff members, who act as judges and advisors to the teams. This year, HSBC has presented a new Lm15,000 sponsorship for the coming 12 months.

The financial challenges which need to be faced by the organisation in its ambitious task to offer enterprise education to a wide spectrum of students are indeed substantial. Within the next three years, YEM endeavours to provide entrepreneurship programmes to around 20% of all students in eligible years attending all post-secondary and vocational training schools.

This year, one can find various products ranging from dog-litter kits to euro albums, to mobile phone magnifiers. Here is a snapshot of what some of the teams are offering this year:

Eleven

This team has created a “coin album” for people to collect euro coins from the several countries which have introduced the single currency. The album collection is likely to include Malta as of next year. It contains four attractive sheets of hard cardboard where each sheet has space for the set of coins of two countries. Each sheet has holders for the 1c, 2c, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, e1 and e2 of their respective countries. A hard outer cover binds the album, ensuring durability and resistance and inside the album, one can also find a separate sheet showing the whole set of coins for each country.

“What makes this album so special is the fact that Malta will be adopting the euro in 2008, which is a major change in currency for our country. It is also an ideal educational tool for learning about the eurozone, and about the people and the economy of the zone. The album will definitely attract the interest of many kinds of collectors including numismatists and collectors of Melitensia and historical memorabilia,” said Luke Vella, Managing Director of Eleven.

Fresh

Want to control humidity in your home? Fresh has found a solution to this problem by introducing what is called a “Hydrasorb”. This HydraSorb is a low-cost, reusable, mini dehumidifier which helps reduce humidity accumulation in small compact spaces such as wardrobes and bookshelves. It works without electricity, by using silica gel beads which turn from orange to green when saturated with water. This product may be reused by simply heating the beads in a Pyrex bowl in the microwave for a couple of seconds in order for humidity to be expelled from the beads, causing them to turn orange and thus becoming good for reuse.

“Apart from all the functions that this product offers, the Hydrasorb is aesthetically pleasing as it features two traditional Maltese scenes with a pop art twist and an appealing spiral design,” said Sara Ellul, Marketing Director and Public Relations Officer of Fresh.

Exclusive

Made up of 12 team members, Exclusive have come up with an item called “Mat in the Box”. This is an all-purpose play-mat for children that folds up into a storage box or toy box. Mounted on a base of light wood, this mat can take the form of a box which is padded with foam. In order to ensure total safety, when closed, the edges of mat in the box are rounded off, preventing any accidents that may occur with sharp edges. The wooden exterior is polished, to eliminate any possibility of splinters of fragment wood. The Mat in the Box is sold at Lm12 and if one would like to order one, this can be done by logging on to the

website: www.exclusiveye.

com.

Coterie

This Young Enterprise company produces highly original and colourful umbrella holders in the shape of Wellington Boots. These boots are designed by the team according to the particular desires and preferences of the individual. These Wellington boots not only serve as an umbrella holder, but also add a lot of colour to the room. One can view this product by logging on to the team’s website: www.coterie-online.com.

Ungfollo

Five Norwegian youngsters form part of this Young Enterprise team hailing from Ski Upper Secondary School. This team has come up with a school newspaper entitled Youth in Follo which covers all seven secondary schools in a large district called Follo. This school journal is based on a webpage, and different journalists from different schools were hired. “Our vision is to create a national youth channel, which can be used by all youths between the age of 16 and 19 years in school-related work, but also in social meetings,” said Odd-Einar Tenden, Managing Director, Ungfollo.

“We want to use our website www.ungfollo.nu to keep pupils updated about different happenings in the different schools, as well as sports and cultural activities. We also aim to get them to communicate through discussions and blogs, and bring pupils closer together by giving them an inside look of everyday life of fellow pupils,” he continued.

Mobeye

Having problems reading your mobile screen? Mobeye has come up with the solution. This team has produced a “Mobile Magnifier” which is portable and small. This magnifier comes in two sizes; 2.5cm (x10 magnification) which is sold at Lm2.25 and 3.5cm (x5 magnification) sold at Lm3.25. One can visit

their website: www.

mobeyeyoungenterprise.com.

“At Young Enterprise we aim to continue introducing and developing entrepreneurial education programmes in as many schools and organisations as possible and strive to build confidence and competence in future business leaders by developing character traits through team-building experiences and practice. I am confident that this year’s HSBC Young Enterprise teams will do their utmost and eventually one team will be chosen to represent Malta with their own innovative product,” said Karl Gouder, Chief Executive Officer, Young Enterprise Malta.