Say hello to tomorrow's business leaders.

Providing opportunity and empowerment to youth is the focus of the Youth Venture program and Youth Enterprise Camp. Offered through the Timmins Venture Centre, a non-profit Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC), both programs promote a similar theme: how to start a business.

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The Youth Venture program, previously called Youth Entrepreneur, is run in conjunction with and supported by Service Canada. Although previously run by Service Canada, it has been operating under the Venture Centre for four years with an 85-per-cent success rate.

It is a three-phase, 48-week program open to people aged 15 to 30 who have barriers to employment: the unemployed, underemployed (part time or underpaid skilled people), or those who lack the required education. Available to 10 participants at a time, they must commit 35 hours per week and have a specific business idea upon which to explore and build.

"It's a program that is meant to provide individuals with the necessary skills to operate and own their own business, as well as to make them more marketable in the labour force," says Terry McGaghran, youth venture project co-ordinator.

The first phase focuses on developing skills and characteristics needed to own and operate a business. Participants experience this, including the importance of developing a feasible business plan, in 10 workshops. They also meet with guest speakers and facilitators who provide expert knowledge and guidance.

Phase two is the development of the business plan under the guidance of an advisor. Phase three requires the individual to meet with other business people and organizations to obtain the necessary information to complete their business plan and open their business.

The program is funded by Service Canada. Local businesses also support the program in-kind by assisting with mentoring.

"They see the value of it," McGaghran says. "Having a knowledgeable labour force assists the community and the economy."

He adds that some of those mentors have taken some of the courses in the past and developed successful businesses.

The feedback from participants has been very positive and many find the interactive format beneficial, he says.

Chris McLaughlin, a former business development officer who ran the program, says students preferred the interaction to "passive learning."

"It helped them think of things in a different light," he says. "When they were done, everybody was employed or had gone back to school."

This year the Venture Centre formed a partnership with the District School Board Ontario North East called Programs in Alternative & Continuing Education (P.A.C.E.).

It will be offered both in French and English with its start date in January 2006.

Summer Camp

On a younger, more condensed scale, the Youth Enterprise Camp aims to capture youthful business ideas. Geared toward the younger entrepreneur, the one-week summer camp program runs in partnership with the five CFDCs in northeastern Ontario.

Major sponsors for the camp are FedNor and Reseau de Developpment Economique et Employabilite (RDEE) Ontario, as well as other private companies in the region.

One-week sessions are offered in Moonbeam (near Kapuskasing) from July 10 to 14 for teens (aged 13 to 16) and from Aug. 7 to 11 for youth (aged nine to 12).

At a cost of $300 per individual, a maximum of six youths per age group, per CFDC are welcome, for a total of 30 students in each camp.

Available to any youth or teen interested, the camp has become a popular summer activity that incorporates learning how to start a business in a fun and interactive manner.

Roxanne Daoust, business development officer for Timmins Venture Centre, says they learn about teamwork, entrepreneurship, financing, how to purchase supplies and make a plan for their business. They have to "negotiate" a repayable loan with a camp supervisor/acting banker, who is a staff member from one of the five CFDCs.

On the last day, they experience "business for a day," where they will go into the marketplace in Kapuskasing and try to sell their product to the public.

At the end of the day, they must figure out their revenues and expenses. Daoust says there has never been a deficit and they have all been in the black, even after repaying their loans.

She says the camp not only presents new ideas to what youth can do in business, but indirectly addresses youth out-migration as well.

"By starting them at a younger age to come up with an idea to sell a product, potentially, some of these youth upon graduating high school or college, may open their own business, hopefully in Northern Ontario."

Ultimately, the goal is to get people to think of creative ways where they can start their own business, make money and not feel the need that they have to go elsewhere, Daoust says.

www.venturecentre.on.ca

By ADELLE LARMOUR

Northern Ontario Business