Martin C. Barry
RECRUES Laval, a rebranded Commission scolaire de Laval program designed to encourage local entrepreneurship while accompanying young entrepreneurs during the challenges involved getting a business off the ground, got a spectacular launch on Feb. 28 with the announcement of the program’s first graduates.
Graduates from program
Each year, RECRUES Communauté Laval will be selecting 10 young entrepreneurs to take part in the 330-hour program. Coming from a variety of sectors of the economy, they’ll receive instruction from the CSDL’s adult education and professional training department, following which they will fulfill a five-year commitment to the Laval community.
One of the recent graduates from the program is Fadi Khalil, a Chomedey resident who runs an internet/web services consultancy company. While Khalil’s curriculum vitae notes he has a PhD in advanced technology, he needed the extra push provided by the RECRUES program to turn his knowledge into something practical. Another recent graduate, Sophie Saint-Fleury, received help from the program to start a business that assists and helps integrate newly-arrived immigrants to the province.
Encouraging entrepreneurship
“Entrepreneurship is certainly something to be encouraged in order to allow our students to succeed,” said CSDL president Louise Lortie. “By offering such an opportunity to these new entrepreneurs, most of whom are graduates of the launching a business program offered at the CSDL’s Paul-Émile-Dufresne professional training centre, we will be bringing out the will to be entrepreneurs among the students, be they young or young adults, while at the same time the RECRUES entrepreneurs will go on to act as ambassadors in our establishments.”
First launched in 2015-2016 under the banner Moovjee Québec Communauté Laval, the program had 12 graduates that first year. Those who completed the program this year received various forms of training and assistance that the program’s organizers estimate as having a total value of $150,000. The Table d’Action en Entrepreneuriat de Laval played a role in making the program a reality. As well, financial assistance for the program was received from Quebec’s Ministry for the Economy, Science and Innovation (MESI).
A shared economic vision
While the City of Laval had no active part in developing or supporting RECRUES Laval, Laval executive-committee member Raynald Adams attended the launch ceremony in recognition of the fact the city will undoubtedly be drawing benefits from the program. “It does embody the principles that we included in our strategic vision and planning,” he told the Laval News. “These people are developing now what Laval is likely to be like in the future.”
