Promoting Entrepreneurship as a Viable Career Option and Supporting New Ventures on Campus: an Economic Imperative

Original post: March 2013
​Entrepreneurism is quickly becoming a legitimized and sought after career option among youth as well as an often cited solution to economic challenges world-wide. As such, it is anticipated that interest in entrepreneurship will continue to rise in the coming years increasing demand for programming and creating opportunities for job growth via new ventures. While much attention (policy and programming) has been focused on the pursuit of commercializing research, little has been done on a national or provincial level to nurture and develop the entrepreneurial and innovative talent required to start new ventures and build successful businesses. This paper highlights relevant issues, current activity, and best practices and draws attention to the economic imperative of promoting and supporting the next generations of job creators: entrepreneurs.

According to Statistics Canada, approximately 68% of net new jobs are created by small and medium sized enterprises. A Kauffman Study found most net job creation is generated by firms that are one to five years old. New firms add an average of 3 million jobs in their first year (in the USA), while older companies lose 1 million jobs annually. The reality is that large firms typically shed jobs and new firms - start-ups run by entrepreneurs - drive job growth. Entrepreneurship is an important and increasingly more popular driver of economic activity. Many emerging nations, governments, organizations and institutions see the promotion of entrepreneurism as a viable career option and the teaching of supportive business skills as a competitive advantage and a strategic opportunity not to be missed. Supporting this opportunity is the growing interest by young adults in entrepreneurship as a career choice. See full paper at:
http://agawacorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Agawa-White-Paper-March-2013_-Economic-Imperative.pdf