Third Annual Junior Achievement Trade Fair 2008 called an Entrepreneurial Renaissance!!

By Joyette Mills-Ward
Business Reporter-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - SCORES of students and a wide cross section of residents of St. Kitts and Nevis turned out to witness the opening of what was called an “Entrepreneurial Renaissance” by keynote speaker Deputy Premier of Nevis, Hon. Hensley Daniel.

Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Sam Condor officially declared open the Third Annual Junior Achievement Trade Fair at the Independence Square on Friday, May 9, which was chaired by Patricia Wilkinson, Marketing Director of the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank.

Wilkinson, who is also a member of the Junior Achievers Advisory Committee, provided information on the background of the Junior Achievers Programme and noted that “students have had to come up with a concept for starting a business, raise capital by selling shares, create a business plan, decide upon a product or service that they would like to offer to the public, manufacture or source a product, employ staff, keep financial records, and prepare for today”.

Six high schools from St. Kitts as well as last years’ winners Charlestown Secondary School and two other high schools from Nevis were represented at the Trade Fair. The burning question on everyone’s lips was: “Will the Kittitian students be able to wrestle the title from the Nevisians this year?”

Deputy Premier Daniel, who is also the Minister responsible for Youth, Trade and Industry within the Nevis Island Administration, said the event brought a sense of an entrepreneurial renaissance to him. He said he was “depending on the youths present to use their vigour, vitality bravado and death-proof approach to life to get into business and help us to end this debilitating dependency on foreign currency and foreign investments”.
 
He also praised the ingenuity of the students, noting the displays he saw demonstrated they were trying to come up with new ways to create wealth, and that is something he was proud of. ~~Adz:Right~~

Addressing the issue of higher learning, Daniel said, “We want you the young people to use your education not as an adornment, but to use your education to add value and to create value. We want you as young people to leave the business schools prepared with your BA and your MBA, but, at the same time, prepared for the establishment of new businesses. Rather than sending out large numbers of applications looking for work, people who study business must be prepared to start business or expand existing businesses!”

Earlier in the proceedings, President of the St. Kitts-Nevis Chamber of Industry and Commerce (SKNCIC) Mark Wilkin said, “Our organisation envisions that this trade fair will go a long way in assisting in the development of our Federation’s youth”. He further went on to say that “Junior Achievement programmes are designed to help prepare young people for the real world by teaching them how to generate wealth and to effectively manage it; how to create jobs which makes the communities more robust; and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace”.

On completion of the opening ceremony, Minister of National Security Hon. Dwyer Astaphan made a book prize presentation to a contingent of exchange students from Antigua and Barbuda’s Junior Achievers Programme, who had a booth at the fair displaying for sale the goods and services they decided upon for their company as part of the Programme in their country.

In a post ceremony interview, SKNVibes caught up with Euloca Browne from the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, who was involved in the coordination of the Programme since its inception some four years ago. She revealed that a similar type of project was introduced in primary schools last year and seven programmes, as part of that project, are being run for that category of students.

Browne also revealed that this year was the first time a contingent from Antigua and Barbuda had participated in the Trade Fair, but has been involved in the Programme for over 10 years. The contingent had CDs, bead jewellery and handmade picture frames on sale at the Trade Fair.

Browne indicated that the school with the highest score from three categories would be awarded a prize at a ceremony normally held every year in October. 

She also informed that the Business Plan, Trade Fair Display and the Financial Report are the categories in which the participants would be judged.