The Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Malta has, for many years, been introducing a large number of young people to the fascinating world of entrepreneurship. And this year has been yet another successful one for Young Enterprise, with a number of young Maltese budding entrepreneurs coming up with an array of fresh and innovative ideas. The success of the Young Enterprise Malta programme is attributed to the fact that it gives young people a unique opportunity to experience firsthand what the world of business has to offer. It provides them with an invaluable learning experience as it prepares them for the real world of work. Participants get to learn vital skills that go beyond merely textbooks and exams. Included among the skills learnt through this programme are meeting deadlines, managing a production line, marketing one’s own product, working with a team and competing in a market. Hence, learning by doing is the heartbeat of this programme.

The Young Enterprise Malta experience is a series of ups and downs, as participants cope with a variety of challenges, struggles and difficulties that one would expect to come across when running a business. The main challenge of such an experience is that of carrying out all the procedures any commercial enterprise would have to undertake, from launching the product to selling it, but with a relatively smaller budget. Some of the challenges faced by this year’s participants were: dealing with team members who seemed to be disengaged or who rarely expressed their views; managing conflicts; raising share capital, time management; getting people to believe in the product and convincing them to actually buy the product; coping with failures while also celebrating achievements.

The majority of participants claim that going through the difficult moments was not only challenging but also useful and a learning experience that made this venture more worthwhile. Indeed, many participants stated that the most crucial thing is that despite any challenges you are confronted with, you keep on moving forward to reach your goals and never giving up. When announcing Blazco as the winners of the Farsons HR and Operations award, Joe Gerada, Chief Executive Officer of FHRD said: “We are celebrating leadership, competence and endurance, meaning that no

matter what, we never give up.”

Blazco, from St Aloysius College, produced an eco-log product, a sustainable alternative to firewood that does not harm the natural environment. The judges felt that the team had excelled in a number of HR and Operations areas. These were motivation, teamwork, training undertaken, health and safety issues, administration, roles, and corporate responsibility. The team had celebrated the hype of the good times, while it had endured and remained strong during challenging and difficult times. The biggest challenge for Blazco was when, during the

initial stages of production an

average of four out of 10 logs would break. Moreover, the jack in the machine broke twice in the course of production, which delayed not only production but also sales, as they had to stop taking orders until the machine had been repaired. Hence, designing the machine itself proved to be very challenging and difficult for the team. Another challenge was the lack of motivation – a result of the repetitive production routine that took its toll on some members of the team. Indeed, this had created friction between team members when some perceived a lack of accountability in others. However, these difficult times were offset by the great response they had received for their product, with repeat customers coming to buy the product as they found it to be very useful.

Rewind was the overall winner, with a total of six awards for its product which is made from recycled wine bottles that are flattened under very high temperatures and used as a platter or a spoon rest.

Many of this year’s participants feel that this experience has indeed matured them. A lot of them have remarked that they now feel more prepared to tackle life’s bigger challenges.

Kenneth Bezzina, the HR director for Re-Cre8, one of this year’s participating organisations, commented: “Young Enterprise was like a roller coaster. It had its ups and downs, but only at the end did you realise what an exhilarating ride it had been.”

The majority of the participants said that they had learned a lot from the experience. They said they had learned the importance of teamwork, learned the need to respect each other, learned how to get along with a diverse group of

people, improved vital communication skills such as the ability to listen to others, learned how to tolerate different temperaments, learned to manage time more

efficiently and effectively, learned to be more confident and had gained valuable knowledge on how to run a business.

Despite the various challenges that young people face on the Young Enterprise Malta programme, the experience is truly a worthwhile and valuable one. As Lorna Farrugia, Manager of Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Malta commented: “All participants are winners. Throughout the nine-month-long programme they mature and grow in their outlook and gain skills which could be very useful for them, once they enter the workforce.”

Angele Camilleri is a Researcher at the Foundation for Human Resources Development