On 2^nd November 2017, JA Malaysia organized the Young Enterprise Central Region Annual Showcase. This event is annually organized to present awards to the students and to show appreciation to the teachers and corporate sponsors for their support. The 11 schools that participated in the competition this year were SMK Seafield, SMK Bukit Mewah, SMK Taman Sri Muda, SMK Pusat Bandar Puchong 1, SMK Bandar Utama Damansara 3, SMK Convent Sentul, SMK (P) Sri Aman, SMK USJ (8), SMK Sultan Sulaiman Shah, SMK St. Mary and Pay Fong.

Part of Young Enterprise Program is the mentoring relationship that is fostered between the Corporate Sponsors and the students. Throughout the 9-months, the corporate sponsors help students run their company successfully and also help them find solutions to problems that arise from managing their student company. The Corporate Sponsors for 2017 were, GE Global Growth, ON Semiconductors, Sensata Technologies, TBWA Kuala Lumpur, FedEx Express, Ernst & Young, Western Digital, GE Aviation, Hartalega, Upper Iowa University and SunPower Malaysia Manufacturing.

This year we saw and improvement in management and product innovation from the student companies. The Annual Showcase held at the National Museum, was sponsored by Bursa Malaysia. We had 3 notable winners this around with SMK Seafield sponsored by GE Global Growth winning the Best Student Enterprise, SMK Bukit Mewah sponsored by ON Semiconductors winning the Best Product and SMK Taman Sri Muda sponsored by Sensata Technologies taking home the Best Annual Report.

It was great fun for all students and teachers all school won an award. It was a moment of appreciation and gratitude as we celebrated a couple of teachers and corporate sponsors who have been involved in this program for more than a decade. We at JA Malaysia look forward to a fruitful year in 2018 and we hope that more schools and Corporate Sponsors will join this valuable program.

JA Pathways to Employment, supported by JP Morgan is a program that introduces underprivileged youth to electrical / maintenance skills, soft skills and employability training. The purpose of this program is to transform at “at-risk” youth from around the Klang valley to sustainable entry-level electrical / maintenance technicians. This program aims to train 100 youths, aged 15-19 over 18 months.

To make this an impactful program, JA Malaysia has partnered with MySkills Foundation and Primus Institute of Technology to provide theoretical and vocational training in the field of engineering. In addition, JA Malaysia will provide soft skills training and introduce these youth to practical work-related knowledge. The participants will eventually be placed in full-time quality jobs as electrical / maintenance technicians.

Thus far JA Malaysia has completed 3 of the 6 soft skills workshops. The desired attitude and character of students became more apparent as we introduced them to goal setting, resume writing and critical and creative thinking. As we carry-out the upcoming sessions, we would introduce to the youth basic personal finance skills, attributes of a team player and interviewee skills to make it a comprehensive program that will benefit the youth in their future employment.

On 9^th November 2017, JA Malaysia conducted its monitoring activity for the Cha-Ching Curriculum. This Financial Literacy program is owned by Prudence Foundation and this program has impacted close to 15,000 primary school children around Malaysia. The visit to SK Rantau Panjang, Klang was fun filled as we were greeted by close to 450 students. The students not only learnt about basic money management but also were able to grasp the 4 key concepts which were Earn, Save, Spend and Donate. The interactive video at the start of each session was very engaging as it drew the attention of students.

With the help of JA Malaysia, the teachers managed to run the program effectively. As always, the excitement of the children was over-whelming as the learnt basic financial concepts, mathematical concepts and analytic skills to improve their financial literacy. This National level program has penetrated into rural areas from 5 states namely Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Perak and Putrajaya.

We at JA Malaysia stand strong by this program as it emphasizes money management and financial literacy which is essential to prepare students for the 21^st Century. As the program has come to an end, with the support of Prudential Malaysia we look to bring this program to more schools in Malaysia.