INVEST Saint Lucia has a new Chief Executive Officer in the person of Roderick Cherry (right). His first order of business was a cheque presentation of $15,000 to the Junior Achievement Programme that is run in schools across the country.
According to Invest Saint Lucia this is in keeping with its social corporate responsibility and its sponsorship of youth orientation programmes.
Kirt Hosam, Chairman of the Board of Junior Achievement accepted on behalf of the programme and explained how focus his group is in developing the entrepreneurial spirit in school-goers.
“Today I’m very thankful to Invest Saint Lucia. They made a donation of $15, 000 to junior achievement. Junior achievement is focused on developing the spirit of entrepreneurial-ship with young people within our nation. We ran a school programme, we run a community programme, we run primary schools programme that enables people to be able to get the skills, competence and the thinking of business,” Hosam said.
The money, he said, will go towards giving secondary school-goers a viable option when they leave school in that they will have the skills, competence and entrepreneurial spirit needed to engage in whatever employment opportunity they may want to get involved in.
The programme is also in primary schools on the island as well. Students are introduced to basic financial concepts of saving and being prudent in how they spend their money.
The Junior Achievement Programme was first started in the USA in 1919 to help educate young people moving from rural America to the country’s booming cities about the means of production and free enterprise. The following year, the organization’s name was changed to the Junior Achievement Bureau. The name was modified in 1926 to Junior Achievement, Inc.
Junior Achievement, today, is the world’s largest organization dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success, plan for their future, and make smart academic and economic choices.