JACE giving students practical business skills
Published:Saturday | October 19, 2024 | 12:05 AMKeisha Hill/Senior Gleaner Writer
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT Jamaica’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.
The Junior Achievement Company of Entrepreneurs (JACE) programme teaches grade nine high school students the practical skills required to plan, launch, and operate their own business venture within a structured, experiential experience.
According to Shian Golaub, programme manager for the JACE programme, the programme is designed to reimagine entrepreneurship at the secondary school level. It also provides students with a hands-on learning experience, emphasising critical thinking and financial literacy.
“Students collaborate to develop and operate their own companies, learn how to conceptualise their ideas into reality, market their product or service, and make financially literate decisions. They also participate in business pitch competitions, conferences, and gain the opportunity to travel outside of Jamaica to represent their school and Junior Achievement Jamaica in competition,” Golaub said.
There has been an uptake of over 141 high schools participating in the JACE programme. Post-COVID, there has been a rebuilding of the numbers. So far for the 2024 school year, the numbers are still being counted. However, over 50 schools have been registered.
“Our numbers have remained significantly strong post COVID, with over 70 secondary schools registered for the programme. There has also been a significant increase in the pass rate of 100 per cent among our students who would have sat the Entrepreneurship Skills Pass (ESP) examination delivered online,” Golaub said.
Students, she said, are taught how to disrupt conventional thinking for business through the lens of entrepreneurship and conceptualising their own businesses using a Business Model Canvas.
“The programme is a part of the National Standards Curriculum and as such, a robust and up-to-date curriculum is delivered annually focusing on an introduction to entrepreneurship, personal development, competencies of a team, the sustainable development goals, how to write a business pitch, information technology and communication, internationalisation and globalisation, intellectual property rights, and business liquidation,” Golaub said.
The effectiveness of the JACE programme, she said, can be evaluated through several key outcomes that reflect its impact on students, schools, and the broader community.
“Students are often encouraged to develop unique products and services, thinking outside conventional business norms. This encourages a mindset of innovation that can lead to market disruption by offering new solutions to existing problems. The JACE programme delivery disrupts the typical classroom environment by turning students into active participants in their learning,” Golaub said.
The next cohort of students, Galoub said, are currently being engaged and will be exposed to materials necessary to assist them with the conceptualisation of their business ideas and electing an executive body to lead the actualisation of said idea.
“We will continue to engage the students through varying competitions and conferences geared towards enhancing their hands-on experience and developing their pitch, marketing and overall financial literacy skills,” she said.
The JACE programme’s annual competitions and event include teacher trainings, scheduled throughout the year, senior leadership summit focused on training the elected executive bodies of the student-led companies, Marketing Maven aimed at developing the students’ marketing skills, annual general meetings, required to be hosted by each participating school, a pitch competition, held per region across Jamaica during National Careers Week, the submission of the companies’ final report and sitting of the Entrepreneurship Skills Pass examination.
Additionally, they have re-established a partnership with the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) to introduce students to the experience of trading their company stocks on the JSE Trading platform.
“The JACE programme remains steadfast in providing students with hands-on learning experience, emphasising critical thinking and financial literacy. The programme is open to all secondary schools across Jamaica,” Golaub said.