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In January 1996, a Working Group on Youth Entrepreneurship was established with co-ordination provided by Human Resources Development Canada. The Working Group on Youth Entrepreneurship is composed of three Sector Council organizations: the Canadian Council for Human Resources in the Environment Industry, the Canadian Professional Logistics Institute, and the Forum for International Trade Training.

The Working Group perceived that a number of needs existed in the area of youth entrepreneurship development and believed that, through new research activity, these needs could be addressed and a variety of potential benefits realized, including:

• enhanced synergy, partnership, collaboration, and alignment among various and disparate activities throughout Canada as a consequence of these activities working in pursuit of common outcomes;
• improved self-assessment by individuals to help determine the relevance and potential benefit of entrepreneurship training programs;
• improved ability of organizations to recruit and select candidates who stand to benefit most from participation in the programs offered;
• improved ability of individuals and organizations to assess the impact of training programs and efforts related to the entrepreneurship development of participants;
• improvements in the establishment and operation of national partnership efforts in support of youth entrepreneurs;
• improvements in the sharing of knowledge, information, and experience among partnership groups; and
• to bring some order (but not too much) to some of the chaos that seems to be prevalent in the field of entrepreneurship education and training in Canada.

The Working Group contracted the Canadian Foundation for Economic Education to undertake the research. CFEE worked in collaboration with officials from Human Resources Development Canada and the Sector Councils and a network of leaders in entrepreneurship education and training.

Catching the Wave is the result of the research and represents our proposals to those Canadians and international authorities working in the area of youth entrepreneurship education and training. It is designed as a working tool to provide a platform to discuss the challenges, solutions, and benefits related to fostering entrepreneurial success. We hope that this report of our research serves to stimulate discussion so that all of us can continue to strengthen our collective efforts to improve youth entrepreneurship development across Canada and throughout the world. We also hope that a large number of individuals and organizations will take the time to review, and respond to, this document. (Click below to access Catching the Wave.)

Catching the Wave PDF File (Suitable for Printing - Adobe Acrobat Reader required) (PDF: 2,199 KB / 86 pages)

The following organizations comprise the Working Group on Youth Entrepreneurship.

Canadian Council for Human Resources
in the Environment Industry
700 - 4th Avenue S.W., Suite 700
Calgary, Alberta T2P 3J4
Phone: (403) 233-0748
Fax: (403) 269-9544
Web site: www.cchrei.org

Canadian Professional Logistics Institute
10 King Street East, 4th Floor
Toronto, Ontario M5C 1C3
Phone: (416) 363-3005
Fax: (416) 363-5598
Web site: www.loginstitute.ca

Forum for International Trade Training
155 Queen Street, Suite 608
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6L1
Phone: (613) 230-3553
1-800-561-3488
Fax: (613) 230-6808
Web site: www.fitt.ca

Partners: Human Resources Development Canada; Canadian Professional Logistics Institute; Canadian Council for Human Resources in the Environment Industry; Forum for International Trade Training