Maltese student Christian Axisa has been honoured with the prestigious Prince’s Trust Global Young Achiever Award, an international recognition that celebrates inspiring young individuals who have managed to overcome significant challenges to achieve positive outcomes.

Christian has previously found mainstream education to be overwhelming and would often suffer regular migraines which led to him missing school altogether.

That all changed when he enrolled in the Prince’s Trust International’s (PTI) Achieve programme, which offers practical, topic-based learning through hands-on projects and activities in small groups. The programme is intended to help students aged between 13 and 19, who struggle with mainstream learning, in order to re-engage with education and succeed. The Achieve programme is supported by the HSBC Malta Foundation and the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation.

Since joining the programme, Christian has made huge strides in both his personal and social development.

“I enjoyed creating new things and learning about money. I enjoyed used the tools in the lab. I enjoyed learning in different ways,” he said, also urging others to join the programme. “It’s fun and we can be creative,” Christian added.

“Christian’s achievements serve as an inspiring testament to the transformative potential of alternative, practical, and topic-based learning achievements,” HSBC Malta CEO Geoffrey Fichte emphasised.

“His journey is a source of immense pride, and it exemplifies the profound long-term positive influence that the Achieve programme consistently imparts upon students throughout Malta,” he continued.

HSBC Malta Foundation stated that since the Achieve programme was launched in 2015, it has reached over 2,500 students like Christian and has provided them with the “skills they need to thrive”. The programme’s network has grown to include 65 schools and educational institutions that run PTI programmes, with the number of available study units increasing from 63 in 2015/16 to 400 today, of which 344 are equivalent to MQF Level 3 or higher.

The foundation added that it is proud to support the programme and looks forward to celebrating more success stories like Christian’s in the future.