Secondary school students have been urged to be “risk-takers”. This challenge came from Vice President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce Andrew Woodroffe at the Launch of this year’s Junior Achievement (JA) program.{{more}}

Speaking at the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Chamber of Industry and Commerce (SVGCIC) conference room last Tuesday, November 11, Woodroffe said that risk-taking is critical in entrepreneurship. Woodroffe said that the Chamber hopes by students participating in the Junior Achievement programme “St Vincent and the Grenadines will turn out a new crop of risk- takers whose successes will help in the growth of the local and regional economy.”

He noted that the JA program is designed to help prepare our young people for the real world, by demonstrating to them how “to generate wealth and effectively manage it and how to create jobs”.

He is optimistic that the programme will help to build a solid base of “young knowledgeable entrepreneurs and business people filled with initiative and new ideas to be strong business leaders of tomorrow”.

While giving an overview of the Junior Achievement program, Safia London, Business Development Officer at SVGCIC, said the programme was started in the United States in 1919 and is recognized as “an effective provider of business knowledge and skills to local students”.

She stated that since Junior Achievement’s introduction in St Vincent and the Grenadines in 1997 by the Rotary Club, hundreds of enthusiastic students have benefitted.

London said the fourth form students will get an opportunity to develop a business of their own where they will purchase and create products for sale. According to London, all business functions will be carried out by an executive, who will have responsibility for the various departments, including Marketing, Production and Finance.

She mentioned that students are expected to meet twice weekly for business meetings where they will decide on the plans and aspirations of their business.

London said this exercise will give students the opportunity to learn the “ins and outs of the business world, equipping them to function when they eventually enter the job market”.

She thanked the Board of Directors of JA Advisory Board for helping to restart the programme which went dormant for close to two years, and expressed the hope that by next year, they would increase the number of participating students.

London urged all the participants present to “give it your all in order to reap the rewards of the programme”.

Senior Education Officer for Secondary Schools Carlton “CP” Hall and Geoffrey Hadaway, Chair of the JA advisory board, gave brief remarks in which they both urged the students to learn as much as they could from the program.

The Junior Achievement is a world- wide organization whose aim is to raise the economic literacy of future consumers, voters, employers and entrepreneurs. In this year’s programme, eleven secondary schools in Kingstown and its environs will participate in the three-month programme.

The Chamber of Industry and Commerce is the local franchise- holder. (VM)