Philipsburg, February 17, 2022. Philipsburg Jubilee Library (PJL) received a grant from the Dutch Royal Library to stimulate challenged teenagers to read. PJL Board and Management decided to use entrepreneurship as the vehicle for this reading campaign and have started ordering books about young entrepreneurship.
A lot of teenagers on our island are interested in becoming their own boss. Some even started as very young entrepreneurs, selling Spanish lime (locally called quenepa), washing cars, or packing at a supermarket. Unfortunately for many of our youths, the curricula of the primary and secondary schools have not yet been adapted to facilitate this career perspective.
A first pilot survey recently administered at the Youth Brigade showed that more than 50% of our young generation (aged 12 – 18) are interested in becoming a business person, or already have a business idea in mind. To ensure that the data is more comprehensive PJL has invited the secondary school's management to collaborate with us and encourage all teenagers to participate by filling in and submitting the survey sent. Interested teens can also access the survey through this link: https://forms.gle/w5V1eh4GoJ65p3CB6As of next week, February 21, 2022, all three library locations will have a special book collection about young entrepreneurship for patrons to borrow. The PJL will be adding more books and also E-books to this collection in the next three months. The new collection consists of practical books, motivational books, manuals, and books about the experiences of peers. Some of the titles of the books are: ‘Become a teen boss,’ ‘Clever girl finance,’ ‘Kidpreneurs,’ and ‘My first small business plan for teens.’At the same time, PJL realizes that it is essential to create a positive environment for young people to start their businesses. Therefore, over the past four months, PJL has teamed up with local proponents of entrepreneurship, individuals, institutions, and organizations to create a platform to encourage, stimulate, and facilitate teenagers (and even younger children) to become an entrepreneur.
The PJL hopes that this campaign would stimulate schools to include more practical aspects of becoming an entrepreneur in Sint Maarten in their curricula. Also, we hope that the legislators would use the results of this Reading Drive to make provisions to accommodate minors with the support of their parents to start a business.
As a foundation tasked with making available knowledge and information for citizens of all ages, PJL is pleased to be part of the many persons locally and abroad who are serious about emphasizing the advantages of Entrepreneurship for our very creative and talented youths.
In light of all that we would like to compliment an entity like the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for having introduced their educational workshops on the practical and financial aspects of “Entrepreneurship" in secondary schools.
Those workshops are crucial for the enlightenment of our youth. PJL, together with all those who are currently collaborating with us to make this drive a success looks forward to welcoming all interested youngsters to visit our locations as of next week and get yourself some of our special collection of books, especially for you.
Should you need more information or if you would like to join us with this Reading Drive Campaign you are free to contact us via the email
pr@sxmlibrary.org .
