Dr Lesley Sawers of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry told the
young people need to be involved in creating work initiatives and "there isn't a one size fits all and we can't talk about young people as an amorphous group".
The committee was taking evidence on improving employability on 23 May 2012.
Dr Sawers also put forward the idea of pooling resources where bigger companies can offer resource in terms of their human resources people to help small businesses.
Julian Taylor of Scottish Enterprise said the important change in the last few years was support for businesses wanting to take on apprentices and to have a "no wrong door" policy when asked for help..
Mr Taylor said: "the whole challenge is very long, it is from early years intervention to internationalisation and growth".
Charlotte Wright of Highlands and Islands Enterprise noted the issue of small and micro businesses was more acute in the region and "retaining young talent in rural areas is a challenge".
Ms Wright cited the example of account managed businesses based in the community and said "it is really important we continue to gather business intelligence on what is happening in the community so we can tailor a response to what is going on".
Gareth Williams of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry told MSPs: "we need to find a way of bringing those young people who have been on those programmes back into schools speaking to other young people".