Be your own boss this summer

Calling all student entrepreneurs! The City of Vaughan is once again offering the Summer Company program in association with the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade to prepare young entrepreneurs with a pipeline of tools, skills, connections and resources required to succeed in their business ventures. Applications for this year’s virtual Summer Company program are now open at vaughanbusiness.ca/Summer-Company and will close on Tuesday, May 31. 

This annual program provides students aged 15 to 29 years old with mentorship from Vaughan’s business community and access to business advisory services and workshops to help them develop important skills. Participants also have the opportunity to receive up to $3,000 in provincial grant funding to start their own businesses.  

Students are invited to apply through a Province of Ontario application portal and will receive support from Vaughan’s Small Business and Entrepreneurship staff to develop a business plan and cash flow. Selected student entrepreneurs will be enrolled in Summer Company workshops and will receive mentorship to help them launch and grow their businesses. 

For the second year, training and mentorship for the program will be provided through Niagara University. Participating students will gain access to university-level business training on marketing, business modelling, operations and finance and receive a certificate of completion from Niagara. This partnership enhances the Summer Company program by providing participating students with university-level educational opportunities, unique experiential learning experiences and career-focused skills development. 

The Summer Company program has supported more than 230 students from Vaughan since it began in 2002. Learn more at vaughanbusiness.ca/Summer-Company. 

The Summer Company program contributes to achieving the mandate of the Advantage Vaughan initiative. On Feb. 15, Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua and Members of Council took the next step in supporting the business community by endorsing Advantage Vaughan, Phase 3 of the City’s economic development response to COVID-19. 

Advantage Vaughan proposes a series of programs to support four strategic pillars of the economy, including:

• local small business owners and entrepreneurs.
• Vaughan’s residents who make up the city’s talent base.
• Vaughan’s local organizations which animate the community and foster local destination development opportunities.
• community branding and marketing to demonstrate the advantages of doing business in Vaughan. 

Advantage Vaughan fosters economic prosperity, investment and social capital through funding opportunities for the business community and training opportunities for local talent development – key priorities outlined in the City’s 2018-2022 Term of Council Service Excellence Strategic Plan. The plan builds off the momentum of the Vaughan Business Action Plan, approved in March 2020 as the first phase in the COVID-19 response efforts, and the Vaughan Business Resilience Plan, which began in June 2020. 

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