Atlantic Canada Career Week Encourages Students to Create Your Own Future

Students are learning to tap into their entrepreneurial spirit as part of Atlantic Canada Career Week from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4.

The week supports career awareness for students from Grade Primary to 12 and for post-secondary students.

"It is important for our province's future that students are empowered to develop their entrepreneurial spirit and mindset," said Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Karen Casey.

Resources include online lesson plans adapted to grade levels that can be accessed by teachers throughout Nova Scotia, as well as Atlantic Canada, for use as part of the regular curriculum. Nova Scotia's contribution includes developing resources focused on The Entrepreneur in Me.

"What this means for young people is more career options," said Cal Gosse, chair of the Business Education Council. "An entrepreneurial spirit is not limited to start ups, it also involves creative thinking, risk-taking and problem-solving to move things along. You need this mindset in both the public and the private sector and large and small organizations."

Lessons will engage students and their teachers and help:

• develop an entrepreneurial spirit
• provide insight into the attributes of enterprising individuals
• support innovation, creativity and risk-taking as social entrepreneurs
• highlight problem-solving in addition to generating ideas for future business ventures
• consider the contribution and value of entrepreneurship.

Specific activities can be introduced within existing curriculum. For instance, an activity for Grades 3 to 5 includes using random consumer products to talk about the four Ps of marketing: product, price, promotion and placement.

"The future starts now. It will be these young minds that create the jobs of the future," said entrepreneur Colin Gillis, principal with Smarter Spaces. "This is the spirit required for us to succeed in Atlantic Canada, whether you run your own business or work for someone else."

Atlantic Canada Career Week was launched by the Council of Atlantic Ministers of Education and Training to increase collaboration on career development.

This resource can be downloaded at www.atlanticcanadacareerweek.ca.