Enabling
change through education
“JA
is all about educating and inspiring youth to achieve in a
global economy, so it’s really important to involve
eminent business leaders who are top of their game. It’s
great to have someone like Peter onboard who has excelled
in his career.” JA’s purpose and mission Lamech
Mbise Vice President, Africa Region |
I have been involved with Junior Achievement (JA), which focuses
on teaching people the skills to develop their own careers and their
communities. Junior Achievement is a global NGO, which has taught
more than 50 million students since it was founded in 1919.
Combining
theory and “learning-by-doing” approaches, the JA programs
are built around three fundamental economic pillars: work readiness,
entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. These programs are further
aligned with four (of the eight) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
taking business education to the grassroots level, to schools and
communities across the world.
In Africa the statistics starkly illustrate the problem: 50% of
Africa’s 900 million people are youth, while of the 310 million
African youth, 21% (or over 65 million) are unemployed. A 2005 UNESCO
study found that African youth spend 7.5 years in primary and secondary
school compared to twelve years for their European and American
counterparts.
Over
the thirty years since JA was first introduced in Africa seventeen
other African countries have joined the movement. In 2008, more
than 100,000 African youth benefited from the JA experience, filling
the gap between what they learn in school and what they need to
prepare for the labour market. There are numerous success stories
across the continent, and an evaluation conducted by the Center
for Enterprise at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa
found that 40% of JA alumni started their own businesses after completing
JA.
With
the increase in telecommunications the world over, ensuring young
people are aware and able to work with information and communications
technology, understand what it can do, and apply it to society and
business is key. That’s as true in Africa as anywhere else.
In addition to concepts of work readiness, entrepreneurship and
financial literacy, JA teaches IT and networking skills, which is
where we can get involved.
I
sit on the Africa board for JA Worldwide - http://www.jaworldwide.org
alongside representatives from companies such as Ecobank, Rio Tinto,
Barclays, Coca-Cola and Oracle Africa. This year, as treasurer of
the Africa board I’ll be continuing to invest my time in supporting
the programmes across the continent, and if you would like to get
involved alongside, we would be glad to make it happen.
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