This morning I had the privilege of speaking at the Annual Governor’s Breakfast at Junior Achievement City. This is a remarkable program supported by the business community to teach real world financial literacy to Utah students.

JA was created by the business community to play a significant role in preparing our young people for their future. Today Junior Achievement is the oldest and largest career and financial education organization in the world linking the private sector with education, with no tax dollars being used for its programs.

JA offers more than 20 different programs each operating as part of the curriculum in our schools. With the Junior Achievement programming, we engage our young people in relevant ways, positively affecting their values and attitudes. And we don’t just emphasize business and economics, but also citizenship, ethics, character, work-related life skills and effective financial management.

In its 10 year independent evaluation of Junior Achievement programs, Utah State University found that all JA programs have a significant and consistent impact on student learning, skill development, problem solving and decision making.

The demand for JA’s new High School Financial Literacy program has skyrocketed with teachers up and down the state requesting it. The JA program serves as a supplement for Utah’s required financial literacy course.

A sizeable number of Chamber members are providing their accounting and finance people for the JA classes. Junior Achievement is planning an expansion of its finance supplement that would reach every high school by 2013.

We owe this to Mr. Dick Prows, whose vision has continued to drive JA’s effort in reaching more Utah young people, sparking the fire within them, opening their minds to their potential. With these new partnerships, Junior Achievement’s student participation numbers in Utah will expand from 64,000 to nearly 100,000 in 3 years and JA Volunteer numbers will expand to 10,000.

Scott Anderson of Zions Bank recently said Junior Achievement may just be his bank’s best investment in the state because, he know exactly where the contribution goes. He can drive by schools Zions sponsors and see a banner that says, “Thanks Zions Bank for Bringing Junior Achievement to our School.”

He knows every child in every grade is getting Junior Achievement in that school because of Zions Bank and he can see his own employees are the ones teaching in their classrooms. It’s a perfect investment of their contribution dollar.

JA is doing its part in our economic recovery and preventing another crisis in the future by helping our young people obtain the financial and work-readiness education they need to become smart stewards.

JA programs provide a compelling value proposition to our state’s employers by preparing students to contribute in the workplace, practice teamwork, and demonstrate creative thinking.

After experiencing JA programs, our young people are prepared to help drive economic development in Utah.

If you’re interested in helping Junior Achievement, there are a number of ways to contribute. Please contact JA at 801.355.5252 or log on to ja-utah.org.