Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am pleased to be here to share a perspective on experiential learning and pathways to employment for Canadian youth, specifically in the area of entrepreneurship.
Junior achievement, or JA as we refer to it, has a long history in entrepreneurial education, so I thank you for including our organization in this study.
For those not familiar with JA, it started in 1919 in the United States and expanded to Canada in 1955. It's now in 120 countries, with over 10 million students participating in a JA program each year somewhere around the globe.
In Canada, JA is a pan-Canadian resource available to school systems. We work with teachers, corporations, and volunteers coordinated by our 16 JA charter offices across the country. Currently we are reaching about 250,000 Canadian youth, grades 3 through 12, each year—a little different context than what we've heard previously.
JA is a registered charity. We raise approximately $20 million a year to provide our programs free of charge, whether that be to schools, students, or parents. About 5% of that funding is currently coming from a level of government.
Most people are familiar with our flagship program, called “company program”, where the students are put into teams. They build and run a business for about four months. They go through a full life cycle of building a business: they capitalize; elect their officers; come up with a business plan; source the raw materials; produce the product; sell it; liquidate; and do a shareholder report, all in four months. It's quite an intensive entrepreneurial learning experience for them.
In some provinces, that particular program has been approved to earn high school credits, serving as work experience for students.
JA has been expanding that particular program, which has now been customized both for indigenous youth and for students focused on careers in trades and fine arts.
A key question we can ask about any entrepreneurial learning program is, does it create entrepreneurs?
The Boston Consulting Group partnered with JA a number of years ago to answer that question in an 18-month study of almost 2,000 JA alumni, who are now working adults; 70% felt that JA had a significant impact on their decision to complete high school and get a post-secondary education. Another 70% felt it had a significant impact on their desire to become an entrepreneur. And based on actual results, graduates were 50% more likely to start their own business.
A similar study was done on JA in Sweden—as I mentioned, JA is a global organization—by a different group, but with similar results. Their study revealed that almost one out of every four JA graduates started a business. Recognizing the economic impact of this, the Swedish government promoted entrepreneurial education across the entire school system, and JA became a regular component of high school education. Because of this support, 30,000 high school students participate in the JA company program in Sweden annually, compared with only 8,000 in Canada, which is a 15-times greater reach per capita. So we have some work to do there.
This speaks to our first recommendation, that Canada should provide more hands-on entrepreneurial learning experiences before our youth get into post-secondary education.
The World Economic Forum recently reported that two-thirds of youth entering school will eventually work in a job that doesn't yet exist. Experts are saying that the pace and scope of change anticipated in the coming years will challenge every industry. A question many are asking is, are our youth adequately prepared for the future of jobs?
McKinsey & Company did a study recently titled “Youth in transition”, and reported that 83% of Canadian educators felt that youth were well prepared for the future workforce, yet only 34% of employers agreed with that statement.
In a large Deloitte study, only one out of four C-suite executives believed their companies had the right workforce composition and skill sets needed to succeed in the future.
Experiential learning to gain entrepreneurial skills provides those essential skills that have meaningful impacts. Again from the Boston Consulting Group report, compared with their peers, we learned that working adults who are JA alumni earn 50% more; are three times more likely to spend less and save more; and are 20% less likely to become unemployed or need social assistance.
In total, the BCG group calculated that the JA program provides $45 in societal gains for every $1 invested. With this impact, we know JA is a proven product, and we offer that it is positioned well to do more to help youth transition successfully to the workforce going forward.
Given our perspective on the value of experiential learning for developing entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial skills, our recommendations to this committee would be the following:
First, support financially and promote through education ministries more entrepreneurial learning opportunities for youth in younger years, before they become focused on post-secondary or enter the workforce. Youth will leverage those skills immediately.
Second, inspire from within. Help connect the evolving entrepreneurial ecosystem in Canada with high school programs to inspire and educate today's youth.
Third, help educate the parents and teachers to understand entrepreneurship and the employment value of entrepreneurial skills.
Finally, celebrate and recognize young entrepreneurial leaders via conferences and awards.
These recommendations are designed to achieve two broader goals.
The first one is to increase the number of youth who have current and relevant employability skills, regardless of their employment path. Creative thinking, risk-taking, resiliency, and adaptability with good teamwork and communication skills are just a few.
The second one is to increase the number of people in Canada's entrepreneurial pool by supporting the organizations that serve as feeder systems.
In closing, I want to thank the chair and committee for this opportunity to participate in this important discussion. We welcome any questions.
Thank you.