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Eligible Applicants
Students enrolled in a public or private educational institution attending:
Eligible Projects
This division consists of academic or extracurricular entrepreneurship projects that were developed and carried out by students over the last school year (from June 2007 to June 2008) and that have enabled them to develop their entrepreneurial skills. Most of the project activities must be under way before the application deadline of March 17, 2008, in order to allow time to assess the development of the students' entrepreneurial skills.
Among other things, these projects will also have enabled students to develop autonomy, a sense of responsibility, creativity, leadership, solidarity, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-actualization, initiative, the ability to make decisions, a desire to surpass themselves, a desire to excel at work and, in some cases, an appreciation for cooperative values.
It is essential for the students to be involved in the implementation of the project by actively participating in decision making and the performing tasks, and this must be reflected in the application package. They must be guided by a teacher or any other person representing the educational institution.
If the project is supervised by someone from outside the educational institution (e.g. an economic development consultant, a youth centre worker, a young entrepreneurship awareness officer, a member of Junior Achievement Québec), a resource person from the educational institution must provide support and follow-up.
Registered projects will involve one of the following activities:
It is very important to distinguish between entrepreneurial projects and pedagogical projects. The following outline will help you understand what is expected in projects entered in this Contest.
What is the difference between an entrepreneurial project and a pedagogical project?[1] "Entrepreneurial culture is 'project-based,' and focused on producing innovation and change. This is clearly not the case for a pedagogical project."
An entrepreneurial project is intended to produce something new, to innovate, to take action to create a product, service or event that has value for the community concerned because it meets a specific need.
An entrepreneurial project is intended to solve a problem identified in the community. It is based on an idea for the creation of an innovative product, service or event. It is designed to solve a problem or to meet a clearly identified need. The project targets a particular group of people, and has an impact and repercussions and value within the community, since its goal is to introduce an improvement. The implementation of the project helps develop the entrepreneurial skills of all the people involved.
A successful entrepreneurial project must:
be
genuinely entrepreneurial: it must lead to actions to create a
product, service or event that is then promoted among the target
group feature an original, innovative action that has value for the community concerned because it solves a problem or meets a need mobilize students around a common goal have an impact and repercussions, and a certain scope be instructive for students, allowing them to develop their entrepreneurial skills
An entrepreneurial project must involve a degree of difficulty, but remain within the grasp of the students concerned. Students who successfully meet a challenge that is neither too hard nor too easy will enjoy a feeling of satisfaction that will encourage them to repeat the experience.
A pedagogical project is intended to allow students to apply and understand concepts and principles, in order to foster learning in the unlimited universe of knowledge.
A pedagogical project is basically designed to help students acquire knowledge connected to the objectives of a course or program. It helps them build their world-view and make hypotheses. They must ask themselves questions and attempt to find answers, make observations based on the information they gather, and pool their knowledge.
A pedagogical project involves investigation and the construction of knowledge. For example, it may centre on the writing or publication of a student newspaper or the organization of an exhibition on the school system, without necessarily being entrepreneurial in nature. [1]. The information concerning the definition of an entrepreneurial project comes primarily from the guide entitled Introduction to Entrepreneurial Culture: Project Development Guide for Teachers, published in 2005 by the MELS as part of the three-year action plan of the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, an initiative coordinated by the Secrétariat à la jeunesse of the Ministère du Conseil executive.
Important
For example, if a fashion show project is presented each year by a college, the students concerned could, for a given year, base their project on a collection made entirely from recycled fabrics to highlight the importance of recycling among their fellow students. The following year, another group of students could present a collection of evening gowns and ball gowns made from secondhand clothing and sell them cheaply to Secondary V students in schools in the region who have limited funds available to buy a dress for their graduation.
It is important to remember that an entrepreneurial project must introduce something new, must be innovative, and must lead to action to create a product, service or event that has value in the community because it meets a need.
An entrepreneurial project meets a clearly identified need, targets a specific group and has an impact and repercussions, while helping students develop their entrepreneurial skills. The project mobilizes students and features an original approach.
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