Western Union Foundation and Junior Achievement Americas execute the Education for Better Project in Jamaica
WESTERN UNION Foundation has collaborated with Junior Achievement Americas to execute the Education for Better Project in Jamaica. This initiative aims to provide job and life-skills training, financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship training for children and youth in the Americas, to promote future financial inclusion and economic opportunity. The programme focuses on using science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to allow students to formulate their impressions about education and its relationship to success in life at an early age. Alphie Mullings Aiken, president of Junior Achievement Jamaica, explains that Junior Achievement Jamaica is presenting this programme through its trained volunteers who deliver job and life-skills lessons to students from grades 10-12 in high schools in Jamaica.
The Education for Better Project culminated in a Career Choices Seminar at the Caenwood Auditorium on Thursday, May 4, with the aim of strengthening the career skills of students. Represented at this seminar were the high schools which had participated in the programme: Excelsior, St Jago, Immaculate Conception, Kingsway, Kingston College, Merl Grove and St Hugh’s. Eight organisations were also present at the Career Choices Seminar to mount displays on their products and services and offer career guidance.
Kari Douglas, PNP councillor of the Trafalgar division, speaking at the Western Union Education for Better Career Choices Seminar, applauded Junior Achievement Jamaica for its efforts in introducing the STEM Programme in high schools, but also outlined that this programme needs to be implemented from as early as the earlychildhood level. She stated that mastering STEM will allow the youth to be more globally competitive and marketabl, as well as afford the country high economic returns.
ABOUT JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT JAMAICA
Junior Achievement Jamaica is a registered non-governmental organisation and a member nation of Junior Achievement Worldwide, the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programmes.
JA’s programmes help to prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs that make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace.
JA Jamaica partners with the Government of Jamaica, primarily through the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, and a number of public- and privatesector entities.
Through alliances with local and international partners, JA Jamaica seeks to improve Jamaica’s business environment, to empower the country’s youth, enhance civic participation, and spur transformational education through JA’s timetested and internationally implemented programmes.
Select Junior Achievement programmes are also taught to deaf/hard-of-hearing students islandwide. The aim of this initiative is to provide similar workforce development and training opportunities comparable to their hearing-enabled counterparts.
JA Jamaica reaches over 15,000 students annually in Jamaica and, to date, has reached over 80,000 youth. Please visit our website at www.jajamaica.org for more information.