Junior Achievement Company Programme 2013-2014 launched

(JASKN) The Maltin Moving Centre at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank hosted the Orientation and Business Innovation and Planning Training Sessions for the Junior Achievement Company Program on Saturday 12th October, 2013. Seventy students and their teachers from eight institutions participated in the first in a series of training seminars to reinforce the skills of work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. This year, for the first time, AVEC and Project Strong have joined the high schools in the Junior Achievement Company Programme.

Peter KN, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Junior Achievement St Kitts- Nevis (JASKN) encouraged the youth to take advantage of the Programme, using it to advance their personal financial standing in the future, as well as to create inventive businesses in their schools as part of the JA Company Programme.

Ms Sybil Welsh of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank engaged the scholars in various activities which personified the importance of innovation and lateral thinking in coming up with ideas that become unique successful business ventures. She also encouraged the students to participate in the various competitions opened during this Financial Literacy Month 2013, the theme of which is “Reshaping Our Future Starting Now”

The Creating a Business Plan module was conducted by Mr Denzil Crooke of Quantum Consulting. His experience, anecdotes and passion for entrepreneurial development combined to make a truly lively presentation. The children were offered his services in the development of their business plans for the implementation of the Programme.

The morning’s event ended with an orientation into the content and use of the JA Company kits by staff of JASKN. These kits, they shared, contain all of the tools that the students need to establish a company, including charts, forms, and other support documents that lead them from the election of a board, hiring of staff, the sale of stocks, to the company liquidation process.

This cycle of the Junior Achievement Company Program precedes the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the Junior Achievement Programme to the Federation by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, who continues to lend its considerable support to Junior Achievement.