Equipping our youth for the future
27 January 2012
We previously made mention of some projects in the pipeline which the Boston Charitable Foundation will be assisting with.
Our Chairman, Richard Moore, is pleased to announce that one such project is Junior Achievement which is part of the world’s largest non-profit organisation involved in enterprise education, encouraging business, life and entrepreneurial skills for young people.
It started in the States in the 1920’s and formed in the Isle of Man in the late 1980’s, then known as “Young Enterprise”.
On the Island, Junior Achievement (IOM) provides a range of free programmes, as a result of donations, delivered by volunteers working alongside a teacher within the Island’s primary and secondary schools. Such programmes are designed to help young people
• increase their self-esteem and confidence
• learn how to manage money and not get into debt
• be successful in life regardless of their academic ability
• develop team working and decision making skills
• transfer the skills learnt in education into their life once they finish school
• develop skills for work
• understand how the world of business works
• learn how to do business ethically and sustainably
• develop their entrepreneurial skills
Through its Community Volunteering Qualification the volunteers from business and the wider community are able to attend free workshops and training which will subsequently enable them to receive a nationally recognised qualification for their volunteering achievements.
Boston sees this as a win-win situation for both students and volunteers alike.
Junior Achievement is now in a position whereby demand for its programmes has outstripped supply. As such Boston will be providing support in the form of funding and recruitment of volunteers over the next three years for a project called ‘Learn to Earn’ which is a financial literacy programme able to reach in excess of 700 students per year and helps link education to employment.
Boston sees such programmes as far-reaching. If we skill up our Island’s youth today the benefits will be recouped by the Manx and other economies in the future.
Jill Allen
Boston Group Limited
The views expressed here do not constitute advice in any way and should not be relied upon. Boston will only provide specific advice under a formal legal engagement.