Junior Achievement Saint Lucia - Developing Young People

Contact: Rose Marie Harris

Thursday, August 23, 2001 - Young people leaving the classroom environment and venturing out into the world of work should be well grounded in the basics of business management - that’s the guiding principle behind the Junior Achievement (JA) Programme of Saint Lucia.  The 5-year old programme, described as a practical working tool for preparing young people for the world of work, continues to achieve its mandate.

Chairman of the Programme Guy Mayers says the programme was born out of the constant criticisms by the business sector that young people were not ready or trained to enter the business sector.    

“Junior Achievement is a practical business experience for the students that complements the business education theory that they do in schools.  In most of the secondary schools, the students that participate in JA are the students from the business education class.  Students are taught to make decisions for themselves, although we have teacher advisors who are there to supervise the students and a business consultant who is there to share the every day business experience with the kids, to help them with problems that they may not know how to deal with.  That builds the link between the business community and the school system,” Mayers said.

The JA programme has grown from six companies in 1995 to 77 companies involving all secondary and primary schools on the island.   There are plans this year to develop a kindergarten programme, all in an effort to ensure that from early ages children begin to have a sense of and can relate to the business world.

The programme is a collaborative effort of the Ministry of Education and the Saint Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Agriculture and Industry.

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