Junior Achievement Project Underway

(ZIZ News) — Eight schools in St. Kitts and Nevis have signed on to take part in the Junior Achievement Company Programme for 2014-2015.

Students involved in the JA Company Programme develop and run a business from the ground up, and the top five become eligible to participate in the Company of the Year for the Americas region.

Programme Support Officer for Junior Achievement St. Kitts-Nevis, Sharalee Kelly, explained how this programme benefits the students.

“It brings to life what they would have learned in Principles of Accounts and Principles of Business as wells as offers a lot of soft skills that they may not have been exposed to because they may not be in extracurricular activities like debating and so on,” she explained.

The JA Company Programme targets third and fourth formers but Kelly said the project will give them skills to help them beyond high school.

She said, “We see that micro-enterprise has become the trend in our worldwide economy and so we are preparing them so that when they finish fifth or sixth form that they can get into micro-enterprise and be able to supplement their income or gain a living from that enterprise.”

Organizers held an orientation for the teachers and students on Saturday at the Maltin Moving Centre at the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank.

The programme runs until May 2015 and ends with a trade fair where the students will sell their goods.