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Youth Employment Fund-This is the official Government of Ontario web portal for Employment Ontario. Whether you're laid-off, unemployed or looking for a new job, we can help. If you're an employer, we can help you get the people you need.

On page 216 of the Shift, Gratton mentions that the internet is increasingly being used to help entrepreneurs find funding for their projects. This made me think of something I had seen in passing a couple of times, called 'crowdfunding'. Crowdfunding refers to sites that allow you to raise money for a certain idea, company, start-up etc. These sites charge a fee (usually percentage of money raised) and provide certain services to customers (PR, coaching etc). Some sites allow only certain types of ventures (creative ventures, Bands only, T-shirts only, non-profit/charity only), while others are open to everyone. Sites typically offer a "Keep-Everything" policy (where you keep the money regardless of getting the goal), or an "All-or-nothing" policy (where you only get to keep the money if you reach the goal). This article provides some of the top platforms for crowdfunding, however in my preliminary research I was able to find sites that were not on this list such as "GoGetFunding" and "Patreon" and "GiveForwards". It seems that these sites are popping up all over the internet! Definitely something to keep an eye on!

We can help you with your Second Career funding application! Second Career is an Ontario government program that enables laid- off Ontarians to train for a new job in high-demand careers.

This week I started on JobBank.gc.ca and searched my local market, York Region (as listed under "Basic LMI Resources - Where to Start" in our course notes). As I typically work with students, this particular site www.betakit.com and an article about funding for youth entrepreneurs was a great source of info to share with my students! Reza Moridi, Minister of Research and Innovation, was at Communitech this morning in Waterloo and announced a partnership with the Campus-Linked Accelerators (CLA) and On-Campus Entrepreneurship Activities (OCEA) to help students interested in building their own business gaining skills to succeed. The CLA is investing $5.8 million and the OCEA providing over $650,000.

The Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling is a Canadian non-profit that funds research and innovation in the career development field. You can receive weekly trends updates by signing up on their site. CERIC also sponsors the annual Cannexus conference.

This article reflects the general trend of Westernized countries who at first implement programs and budgets to help protect and conserve their natural resources and species, but after realizing the costs of maintaining such a program, they cut funding and eventually abandon the initial idea altogether. This typically occurs when a government is attempting to privatize areas of the public sector, and has happened to several services and industries within Ontario. This article also highlights the effects of cancelling protective programs for the natural landscape and its resources, as many people who rely on certain natural resource industries are at risk of losing their jobs, as well as those involved with the protection and enforcement of such programs. This specific case deals with the endangered species of Caribou living on a conservation area in Northern Ontario, and their fate lies at the hands of the final outcome of this decision to cancel or continue the level of protection currently over that area. The primary threat is the natural resource industry and their extraction practices, which is potentially fatal for the Caribou species, as the government is more easily persuaded with the promise of financial return over protecting an area that is a natural resource goldmine and its few animal species that inhabit it. There are job cuts and office closures in Ontario's natural resource future, however the extent to which it effects depends on how environmentally aware the government decides to be.

This grant program runs across Canada and provides up to $45,000.  Grants are available in many different forms and with special grants for new immigrants, transitioning Canadian Forces members, and existingentrepreneurs.  

I thought this was a particularly interesting website as it touches on a lot of things that Friedman has mentioned in his book; including the focus on this weeks readings on education and a knowledge-based economy. It has articles outlining how China is overtaking the U.S in terms of how much money is spent on science and technology funding for example, showing how the developing countries are catching up with us in terms of their high-skilled, more innovative work.

The website Globalization101 is a vast resource covering many topics regarding the globalization phenomenon. The article High-Stakes Testing in particular looks at different educational systems, and how US admissions are undergoing reform, while being compared to other educational system styles. The major link between this article and the first chapter of the World is Flat is the focus on skills, not job titles or location. The new standardized admissions tests will focus on skill development opposed to grades which may level the playing field for people to find internationally connected jobs.