Junior Achievement Northwestern Ontario

To inspire and educate young Canadians to value free enterprise, understand business and economics and develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills.

Given the large number of First Nations communities in Northwestern Ontario, one of our main areas of focus is our Aboriginal youth population. For First Nation youth, whose population has been growing since the early 1990's, the problem of youth unemployment is elevated. In order to find a job in such a competitive market, First Nation youth need to enhance their personal qualifications. This can be achieved by pursuing higher levels of education, diversifying their knowledge base and by gaining exposure to different fields of expertise.

Our organization believes the programs offered by Junior Achievement will allow all youth in our region to identify employment and entrepreneurial opportunities and to develop interpersonal skills, a personal work ethic and an understanding of the working world-all of which will benefit the students themselves and the future of Northwestern Ontario.

Junior Achievement has been active in Northwestern Ontario for 4 years and to date (Dec 31, 2002) we have completed 107 programs, reaching more than 2600 students across the region. Businesses sponsor JA programs for as little as $250 and we train volunteers from the business community to go into the classrooms to teach the material. These programs are offered at no cost to participating schools.

Programs:

Northwestern Ontario Junior Achievement currently offers 5 programs for students in Grades 5-12. JA programs teach students important life skills including career planning, resume writing, interview skills, budgeting, basic banking, goal setting, an introduction to business, and marketing. All of our programs emphasize the importance of obtaining post secondary education and training and are geared to fit the school curricula at each grade level.