Five young entrepreneurs from Jamaica were awarded at the 40th staging of Junior Achievement Next Generation Future Leaders Forum in Ontario, Canada last week.

They are: Shereen Henry, 19, Kevonnie Whyte, 16, Jerome Cowan, 21, Damion Laylor, 22 and Oshane Allen, 18.

At the Junior Achievement Next Generation Future Leaders Forum, Allen and Laylor both won individual awards in the category of Global Leadership and Inspiration Award, while Whyte won an award in the category of Global Leadership in Entrepreneurship; Henry received an award for Outstanding Corporate Social Responsibility and Cowan won an award for Best Leadership in Technology.

The forum was held at the Queens Business School in Ontario, Canada between August 7 – 11. There these individuals competed against 200 youths from 15 countries from across the globe.

Henry, Whyte, Cowan, Laylor and Allen were each part of the top five winning schools in the local Junior Achievement Jamaica Company of Entrepreneurs Competition. The competition was held earlier this year and came to a climax on June 25.

This is the second year that a team from Jamaica has attended the Junior Achievement Next Generation Future Leaders Forum. Wilfred Johnson, western regional manager of Junior Achievement Jamaica, accompanied the team.

Junior Achievement Jamaica received sponsorship from USAID, the Ministry of Education and other private sector organizations to attend to the conference.

Last year, Rodje Malcolm, Decia Gillipse, Shauna-Kaye Daley, Gavin Samuel and Annalisa Evans made up the first delegation of students that represented Jamaica in Canada.

The Junior Achievement Company of Entrepreneurs Programme equips youths with the required knowledge and skills needed to start and sustain a business.

Junior Achievement Worldwide is a non-profit organisation aimed at teaching entrepreneurial skills to young people between the ages 15 to 24.