‘Let’s believe in the power of education’: JA Malta CEO celebrates ‘special’ Finals & Awards Night

JA Malta Foundation CEO Matthew Caruana on Monday shared his pleasure at the positive response that the non-profit’s Finals & Awards Night received.

The event, which was held last Saturday, is the education organisation’s landmark event, encapsulating a year of “tireless work” by it and the participating teams of students. It saw 12 finalist teams, six from its Company Programme and another six from its StartUp Programme, deliver pitches in front of a panel of esteemed, expert judges. The winners will have the opportunity to represent Malta at Gen-E, a global entrepreneurship festival, which this year will be held in Istanbul, Türkiye. h2Lo was crowned the winner of the Company of the Year Award, while Moziac was named StartUp of the Year. Additionally, there were a number of teams that were in the running for one of the organisation’s signature awards.

On Sunday, JA Malta’s management remarked that it was a “special” event that had “amazing pitches” with “fantastic students” taking part. It added that all of the other teams performed “extremely well” throughout the whole competition, and should be proud of their performances.

“Irrespective of whether you won an award or not, you were a key part of completing the puzzle and you are now and forever a member of the JA Malta family,” it continued.

Mr Caruana took to social media on Monday to remark that he is “overwhelmed” by the number of messages he received over the weekend, and he is also “very happy” with how “everything went so smoothly” on the day.

“Your messages keep motivating me to give my best, no matter how limited that is, to continue working to try and impact someone’s life for the better,” he added.

He looked back at his own experience as a student at JA Malta, saying that it and its Company Programme gave him “a lot”, and he felt the need to come back to the organisation to “give back and offer it to others”.

“But I cannot do anything alone. JA Malta is a vehicle that allows us all to do this. Indeed, JA is a collective effort of all the JA team, Board Members, teachers, mentors, collaborators, partners, supporters, students, alumni, volunteers and the JA Europe and JA Worldwide network,” Mr Caruana continued, before proceeding to thank them all from the bottom of his heart.

“Let’s continue to get together to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in the way they want and for the good of the community,” he stated.

He concluded by adding: “Let’s believe in the power of education. Let’s create the changes we want to see. Let’s give youths the much-needed self-efficacy.”

Launched in Malta in 1989, JA Malta is a non-governmental and non-profit organisation that aims to provide entrepreneurship education programmes at all levels of the educational system.