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OPINION maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 4 JULY 2018 8 OPINION ANALYSIS JCI – promoting skills for youths DEVELOPMENT opportuni- ties: that's what Junior Cham- ber International (JCI) Malta is all about. And what a devel- opment opportunity has this last week been for our Maltese Members. Two weeks ago eight Mal- tese participants took the leap to not only travel to the Euro- pean Conference, which was held in Riga, Latvia but also to actively participate in the vari- ous trainings and competitions held. Three contested in the JCI Debating Competition, coming a close second beating teams from both Ireland and United Kingdom on their way to the final. Meanwhile our National Public Speaking Champion, took the crown for the best Eu- ropean Public Speaker amongst 10 European contestants. The awards ceremony was indeed something we hadn't waited upon so keenly for a while, mixed feelings first of disappointment, then of joy and pride as we were announced winners. But enough about the event per se. I'd like to shed some light on what we try to do as an organisation. As stated in my opening line, JCI is an organisation which seeks to provide development opportunities. We believe that to create strong leaders for our communities of tomorrow (and today really) we need to provide opportunities to our youth. As an organisation we define youth as 18-40; however, really and truly most of our members are within the under 30 brack- et. Those over that age-group help us with their experience and support to ensure that we can actually grow. Thus, as an organisation, we have taken it upon ourselves to help fill the void that the educa- tional system and our employ- ment system have. It is a well known fact that most career opportunities re- quire experience, of various types and degrees. Experience which our education systems rarely provide; in fact, we deem our graduates, at times, to be not ready for work and em- ployers need to level people up. Moreso, after being in em- ployment and us youth being ambitious, some seek to take on leadership positions, which guess what also require experi- ence. Are employers, especially the micro businesses that drive our economy, in a position to take risks trusting key aspects of their business to inexperienced youth? Unfortunately the reply to that is 'no'. So how can our youth, upskill themselves sufficiently to be qualified for these promotions and/or job changes without having commercial leadership experience? The answer, as we see it, is through taking on Civic Re- sponsibility, such as joining an NGO and especially through running local community pro- jects. JCI Malta, unlike other non- profit organisations is mission driven by providing develop- ment opportunities that em- power positive change. That means we support our mem- bers, youth and collaborat- ing organisations in anything which furthers that mission. Other organisations usually have a much stricter scope - that is you can only help out for a singular cause. That means that JCI Malta has, indeed, run projects across different areas of society. From entrepreneurship related pro- jects such as HackItOn business bootcamps, public speaking and debating competitions, and community projects including National Cleanup Day and the Pet Cabin project where we are looking to allow Mater Dei pa- tients to meet their pets when under long-term care. This year, to bring forth fur- ther opportunities and allow youth to highlight their Civic experiences to employers we are launching a project, suc- cessfully implemented by JCI France, called Civic CV, where we will be training youths on how to highlight skills learnt and HR professionals and em- ployers how to identify these skills from volunteer experi- ences. All I can say from my personal experience is that being part of JCI for the last four years has really given me plenty of oppor- tunities to grow. Being the shy person in the corner of a room, I am now confident to not only speak in front of an audience but also walk up to someone and introduce myself– a key skill which has helped me develop and grow my own business over the last couple of years. That's in addition to great friendships built around the world, through the number of academies and conferences I've attended over the last three years. If you would like to develop yourself further (know some- one who does) or can otherwise support further development opportunities for youth in Mal- ta feel free to reach out to JCI Malta our team will do the best to ensure you're given the op- portunity you've been looking for. Looking forward to see you in our next monthly meetup. Jonathan Mifsud is National President of Junior Chamber International The National Youth Council (KNZ) and its member organi- sations have been invited to submit opinion articles on topics affecting youths today. The contents of the article do not necessarily refl ect the opinion of the Council Jonathan Mifsud 20mm All round Bleed DRAGONFLIES AND DAMSELFLIES OF THE MALTESE ISLANDS DRAGONFLIES AND DAMSELFLIES OF THE MALTESE ISLANDS Charles Gauci Charles Gauci P R E-P U B LI CAT I O N O FFER MediaToday is pleased to o er a pre-publication o er of €15.00 (original price is €20) including packaging and postage of the full-colour hardback edition of Dragon ies and Damsel ies of the Maltese Islands by Charles Gauci published by Birdlife Malta. The pre-publication o er is valid until 27 June 2018 and is only available to residents of Malta and Gozo. Please send a cheque addressed to MediaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann together with your name, address and contact number Being part of JCI for the last four years has really given me plenty of opportunities to grow