College Boreal offers assistance with e-business.

With the rise of e-business and the advent of the Internet as a go-to reference tool for newer generations of consumers, business-assistance programs such as Student Connections as offered through Sudbury's College Boreal are becoming increasingly prevalent.

As a program offered through Industry Canada's Youth Employment Strategy, Student Connections seeks to hire knowledgeable post-secondary students to assist small- and medium-sized businesses with a variety of Internet-related training and assessment services. These include the analysis of existing company websites, direction on how to implement various e-business features such as electronic payment, and how to improve a company's Internet security features.

"It's all about streamlining business optimization," says Patrice Dubreuil, Student Connections coordinator, College Boreal.

College Boreal is just one of 14 post-secondary institutions across Canada participating in the program, and the only one with the mandate to deliver services in both of the country's official languages. Dubreuil credits this fact to the school's broad provincial reach, with coverage of an estimated 85 per cent of Ontario.

The program recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, with nearly 200,000 small business having been helped nationwide. College Boreal has been active in the program for the last six years, with nearly 190 students having been hired to assist nearly 7,400 businesses throughout Northern Ontario, including Sudbury-based Trillys Communications. Yorkshire Bed and Breakfast and Ground Control (Sudbury) Ltd.

"Businesses need to start mastering the tools or risk being left behind," says Dubreuil. "It's practically mandatory that they learn how to position their business on the Internet and to know where to look for customers."

Costs are minimal, ranging from as low as $3 an hour to $200 for a full evaluation of a business' online capabilities and services. Dubreuil says that because Industry Canada covers the $11.50-per-hour cost of the student labour, the user need only cover various administrative and training fees.

Despite the government sponsorship of the program, Dubreuil insists that it is not in direct competition with existing local businesses who provide similar services. In fact, he argues that it can often work with, rather than against, Internet-focused companies.

"We help businesses to improve on existing technologies primarily by offering a 10 to 15-page recommendation, which other companies can then be hired to implement," he says.

The program has the assistance of the elderly as a secondary mandate, a focus that College Boreal has had for the last several years. However, as the school's new program coordinator; Dubreuil says that he will focus local Student Connection efforts more strongly towards its primary mandate, and has a series of projects in the works to support this new approach. These include hosting morning workshops to teach small businesses how to set up wireless networks, and reaching out to the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce to explain how the program may prove to be a good, minimally-priced fit for their members.

By NICK STEWART

Northern Ontario Business