Achievement’ Working To Build Students’ Job Skills (NAPSA)—Climbing the corporate ladder takes time—but two _ new programs may help many of today’s students skip a few rungs. Onegives kids experience making business decisions and seeing firsthand how those choices impact a company’s future. The other gives students an inside glimpse of the working world, helping them better understand the day-to-day life of the workplace. Both can have an impact that lasts for years to come. Here’s a closer look: CEO For A Day More than 42,000 children acted as virtual CEOs last year through the JA Titan program, run by JA Worldwide ( Achievement). They learned to set prices, production levels and capital investment— and how to allocate resources for marketing and research & development. Thousands of children will participate again this year, and the valuable teamwork and decisionmaking skills they learn can be applied to the workplace whether they end up running their own companyor not. Each year, a series of nationwide JA Titan competitions is held, simulating a business cycle of five to 20 business quarters. Students make decisions, result- ing in a score called a performance index. The team with the highest performance index wins the competition. Seeing Is Believing A program called JA Job Shadowbrings students into the workplace through on-site career mentoring provided by businesses in the community. Job Shadow Two unique programslet children experience the work world for themselves. gives students real-world experience as a memberof the workforce and helps teach “soft skills” such as teamwork, leadership and problem solving, which complement what they learn in classrooms. Seventy thousand participants visited local businesses last yearalone. A Helping Hand Both programs are funded in part by The Best Buy Children’s Foundation, which awarded a grant in excess of $640,000 to JA Worldwide, bringing its total support of the organization to more than $4 million since 2000. Money has gone to help the group offer programsto help students in grades K-12 devise and adhere to a budget, learn about the cost of credit, and become informed consumers who make smart choices. The group is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating young people about work readiness, entrepreneurship and financialliteracy. For more information, visit www.ja.org.
