March Regional Round-Up: Highlights from Our Six Regions

March 11, 2022

There’s always so much happening in the six JA regions that it can be hard to keep up! That’s why we’ve compiled some of our favorite stories from each regional operating center from last month.

JA Africa

JA Africa held its 11th annual Company of the Year Competition, hosted by JA Mauritius. The second fully virtual event included student company teams from Côte d'Ivoire, Eswatini, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe as they compete for the coveted title of JA Africa Company of the Year.

The winning team will also join the five Company of the Year Competition winners from Junior Achievement USA, JA Europe, JA Asia Pacific, INJAZ Al-Arab JA MENA, and JA Americas in April to compete for the De La Vega Global Entrepreneurship Award. Read more.

INJAZ Al-Arab JA MENA

This month, INJAZ Al-Arab kicked off the Sprinters Staff Development Program in partnership with McKinsey & Co. The program’s high-level strategic objectives are to reskill staff for professional development and personal growth, increase staff commitment and retention, bring regional leaders together in one place to learn more about the challenges faced and interdependencies, and strengthen teamwork culture across the region to serve the organization’s purpose. The program will run for three months, during which the selected participants will work in teams consisting of colleagues from the INJAZ network, on solving challenges facing the region as well as receiving tailored sessions from experienced McKinsey trainers on skills needed for success in the next decade.

JA Europe

Politico featured JA Europe CEO Salvatore Nigro and JA Bulgaria CEO Milena Stoycheva in "Closing the skills gap through creative thinking." The article quotes a recent ManpowerGroup study that cites “some 69 percent of businesses reported struggling to find qualified people last year—a 15-year high, with Europe hit hardest.” Read more.

In addition, more than 10,500 girls from Romania, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Portugal, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Greece participated in the “Girls Go Circular” project in 2021, thanks to the coordination of EIT Raw Material and their local JA offices. Read more.

JA Americas

This June, JA Americas will inspire and connect more than 50,000 young people, ages 16–25, with NAU Fest. The forum, scheduled for June 10–20, will give students access to innovative and dynamic online content, foster networking, and present experiential learning opportunities. Pre-registration is open now.

Also, JA Americas and Google launched the campaign for the second edition of "Grow with Google." The initiative provides a free Google-certified course in digital marketing to vulnerable youth across five countries in the region. Learn more.

JA Asia Pacific

Prudence Foundation, with the support of JA Asia Pacific, hosted its first-ever Financial Literacy Conference on February 18. The Cha-Ching Financial Literacy Conference 2022 brought together educators, policymakers, academics, and industry experts from across Asia Pacific and beyond. If you weren't able to attend live, you can watch the recording online.

Junior Achievement USA

To help recruit volunteers for the spring semester in the United States, Junior Achievement USA has launched a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) campaign. The campaign, themed “Where Dreams Take Flight,” shows how JA helps students make the connection between what they learn in school and life outside the classroom. The PSAs have been distributed to television stations and networks throughout the United States. The previous campaign generated more than 211 million impressions, playing on more than 1,000 television outlets.