Last month, Toly CEO and Chairman Andy Gatesy, in the presence of MCAST Institute of Art and Design Director Stephen Vella and other Toly and MCAST officials, presented awards to Lorraine Fenech, Richard Cachia and Claire Borg. These MCAST students placed first, second and third respectively in a Toly design assignment.
Toly, a global supplier of high-quality plastic packaging components sold around the world by leaders in the cosmetic, skincare and fragrance sectors, has always been at the forefront of education-business linking initiatives.
Operating for over 40 years, Toly has not only favoured life-long learning opportunities for its 800 employees spread over its office and production facilities located worldwide, but has also held links between business and academia in very high regard. One such link is the ongoing collaboration Toly has with the MCAST Institute of Art and Design.
As Mr. Gatesy stated during today’s event “By providing students with practical case studies to put their coursework into practice, Toly reaffirms its commitment to strengthen the younger generations and give them the opportunity to gain a better knowledge of the world of work.”
Indeed, through this collaboration, Toly has pledged its support not solely through a sponsorship, but also by awarding cash prizes to the students whose designs placed first, second and third, as well as a 1-month internship to one of these students. Toly also provided all the MCAST students participating in this assignment access to the e-catalogue of all Toly products and organised visits for these students to the Toly premises.
MCAST students, as part of their course work, had to present innovative ideas and designs they believed would benefit the beauty product consumer in terms of application systems, second use or additional functions.
A diverse range of concepts was submitted by the students, who were also encouraged to deliver presentations of their respective projects to the Toly officials. Each project was marked in terms of research; relevance to the brief; presentation and idea creativity.
“We are very pleased with the outcome of the current initiative” stated Dorien Bianco, Head of Marketing and Business Development at Toly. “It is impressive to see the high calibre of innovative ideas and designing techniques demonstrated by these students, the majority of who participated in this assignment with a high level of commitment.“
The Group looks forward to start working with MCAST Institute of Art and Design on the next initiatives relating to topics like packaging, exhibition stands, brochure and video designs. Its experience in this collaboration has been very positive and commendable to any other business establishment having a firm belief that its responsibilities go beyond merely meeting its commitments to its customers but also to the communities in which its customers and indeed itself operate.