{"id":125683,"date":"2026-01-21T01:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/125683\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T01:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:10:15","slug":"junior-achievement-plans-workforce-training-at-fscj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/125683\/","title":{"rendered":"Junior Achievement plans workforce training at FSCJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Junior Achievement Experiential Learning Center will be established at the Downtown campus of Florida State College at Jacksonville<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new learning center is projected to serve more than 30,000 students annually across Northeast Florida when its services begin next fall.<\/p>\n

The partnership, announced Tuesday, includes a 50-year land lease agreement that represents a long-term investment in Jacksonville\u2019s students, workforce and regional economy, officials say. It will bring career-connected learning to help students run businesses, earn paychecks, manage budgets and explore career pathways through interactive exhibits and simulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (Experiential Learning Center) reflects what\u2019s possible when education, business and community come together around a shared goal: preparing young people for choice-filled futures,\u201d Junior Achievement of North Florida President Shannon Italia said in a news release. \u201cThis long-term partnership with FSCJ gives our community the foundation we need to build an experiential learning hub that strengthens student outcomes and supports a future-ready workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Junior Achievement\u2019s \u2018living classroom\u2019<\/p>\n

The JA Experiential Learning Center is planned as a state-of-the-art immersive facility, what JA calls a \u201cliving classroom\u201d where the gap between school and the region\u2019s workforce disappears. The center will feature student-sized \u201ctowns\u201d\u00a0 that include interactive exhibits and simulations where students learn about the future and practice it, JA said.<\/p>\n

That includes simulated \u201ctown storefronts\u201d where students learn about real companies and industries in Northeast Florida, and learn \u201cunexplored and emerging careers of the future,\u201d the program website said.<\/p>\n

\"\"A JA Experiential Learning Center town storefront living classroom. | Junior Achievement<\/p>\n

The center will build on JA\u2019s Florida-aligned curriculum to help students develop financial capability, workforce readiness skills and career confidence. It also will create a program that connects elementary and secondary students to postsecondary education, career pathways and lifelong learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis partnership embodies FSCJ\u2019s commitment to serving as an educational anchor for our community,\u201d FSCJ President John Avendano said in the news release. \u201cBy welcoming the Junior Achievement Experiential Learning Center to our Downtown Campus, we are expanding exposure and opportunity for young students across Jacksonville while strengthening the connection between early learning, college and career.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 4,000 volunteers and 200-plus companies are expected to engage in the program each year. <\/p>\n

Design and engineer planning for the center are underway, with construction targeted to begin later this year and a soft opening projected for next fall.<\/p>\n

According to the center\u2019s website<\/a>, Junior Achievement needs $9 million of its $15 million fundraising campaign to break ground. It has raised $4 million to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new Junior Achievement Experiential Learning Center will be established at the Downtown campus of Florida State College…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-125683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}