NPower Canada

NPower Canada provides low-income job seekers who face systemic barriers to employment with clear pathways to prosperity through its no-cost, sector-based IT workforce development solution.

NPower Canada collaborates with employers to design digital and professional skills training programs that equip job seekers with the specific skills and certifications employers urgently need, enabling them to transcend barriers such as a lack of education, inconsistent work history, and discrimination based on race, gender, disability, and other factors. NPower Canada supplements training with a holistic suite of support, from professional development opportunities to wraparound support to job placement to 5 years of post-program services. This comprehensive approach is key to NPower Canada’s success in placing graduates into meaningful careers.

NPower Canada’s solution changes lives by bridging Canada’s digital skills gap and equipping job seekers with the customized training and support needed to obtain work and create a more equitable and inclusive technology sector.

NPower Canada addresses Canada’s digital skills gap by training ambitious yet unrecognized non-traditional talent for high-demand digital careers in the nation’s growing technology sector.

The pandemic has further altered Canada’s labour market landscape, widening the nation’s digital divide and displacing workers from jobs in the hospitality and retail sectors—particularly women, BIPOC, and Newcomers. The Brookfield Institute reports that, within Canada, women lost full- and part-time jobs (-2.4% and -5.2%) at a higher rate than men (-1.7% and 1.5%), while unemployment rates amongst BIPOC workers increased significantly compared to non-BIPOC. Furthermore, while Statistics Canada reports that youth lost work at twice the rate of older workers, a report by Generation found that mid-career workers comprised nearly 50% of the long-term unemployed in Canada.

With the pandemic continuing to accelerate the pace of digital transformation, demand for tech talent has elevated across industries. The Information and Communications Technology Council’s 2021 Outlook report warns of a rapidly aging IT workforce with a looming skills shortage on the horizon. 

NPower Canada bridges the digital divide by cultivating the next generation of tech talent, reskilling displaced workers across Canada for in-demand careers and contributing to a more diverse, inclusive economic recovery.

NPower Canada’s free 15-week workforce development solution provides a comprehensive suite of virtual technical and professional skills training, wraparound support, job placement, and alumni services to low-income job seekers who face systemic barriers to employment.

As part of the program curriculum, participants take part in technical and professional workshops led by experienced instructors and human services professionals, who work with participants to ensure their needs and priorities are met throughout the program. NPower Canada uses tools such as Zoom for Education, Schoology, and Coursera to deliver virtual skills training and provides laptops and wi-fi sticks to those who lack home computer access and/or high-speed internet. This allows NPower Canada to ensure broad accessibility and to bring its demand-driven training and job opportunities to a larger cross-section of workers eager to transition into the digital economy.

Upon graduating, NPower Canada’s employer engagement team pairs graduates with jobs amongst its network of employer partners to ensure the right matches are made and provides graduates with support for 5 years after completion, including networking events, mentorship, and access to further education. This end-to-end approach ensures graduates secure and retain digital employment, lifting themselves, their families, and their communities out of poverty.

NPower Canada is a registered Canadian charity that specifically serves low-income, underserved job seekers ages 17+ who face systemic barriers to employment. NPower Canada takes a dual-client approach to its workforce development solution, upskilling and reskilling job seekers with the in-demand digital and professional skills training and industry-recognized certifications needed for emerging digital roles while providing employers with a stable pipeline of custom-trained, job-ready talent.

To date, 89% of participants served are racialized or Indigenous; 34% have been in receipt of government income support at enrollment; 43% are Newcomers to Canada, and 7% are persons with disabilities. To address the systemic underrepresentation of self-identifying women and gender diverse workers in Canada’s technology workforce, NPower Canada also strives to achieve gender parity in its skills training programs. To date, 43% of enrollees have identified as women, non-binary, Two-Spirit, or transgender, with more recent cohorts achieving NPower Canada’s 50% target. By focusing on upskilling the most vulnerable populations, NPower Canada can make a meaningful and measurable impact on communities that have been historically excluded from the technology sector while narrowing the wealth gap between low- and high-income populations.

Upon enrollment, NPower Canada participants have an average household size of 3.3 members and an average gross annual individual income of $10,124. Twelve months later, employed alumni earn an average starting salary of $39,645, in many cases more than tripling their prior income. This has a tremendous impact not only on graduates themselves but also on their families and communities, helping to lift multiple generations out of poverty. By focusing on economically disadvantaged workers, NPower Canada builds long-term economic and social resilience amongst promising yet unrecognized talent, preparing them with the skills and confidence needed to become future leaders in a more diverse and inclusive technology workforce.

NPower Canada develops its curriculum through frequent and ongoing consultations with employers to identify their junior-level IT hiring needs and skills requirements. Group consultations are usually facilitated through the NPower Canada Industry Council, which convenes leading employers on a bi-monthly basis to provide program direction and input. Other member firms include Accenture, CIBC, Cisco, CGI, Compugen, Deloitte, Ecobee, Herjavec Group, RBC, Rogers Communications, Softchoice, Soroc Technology and TD Bank. Beyond curriculum development, employers are also involved in each stage of program delivery and evaluation, including skills training, job placement and post-hire support such as mentorship and continued education to support career advancement.

Having focused on supporting young adults ages 17-30 since its inception, NPower Canada recently expanded its workforce development solution to serve job seekers of all ages. This expansion is built on the success of a recent pilot program, the ReNEW Tech Reskilling program (Oct. 2020 – Feb. 2021), which upskilled adult job seekers and precariously employed workers ages 31+ for in-demand digital careers. Prior to the pandemic, NPower Canada had already been encouraged by a growing number of its partners and stakeholders to expand the scope of its workforce development program beyond youth. Given the labour market disruption brought about by accelerated automation and digitization, growing numbers of Canadian adults have faced a greater risk of displacement from broad categories of jobs in retail, hospitality, manufacturing and other key sectors.

Initial outcomes from the first ReNEW pilot have been strong, with 81% of participants earning industry certifications and successfully completing training. Among program graduates, 83% have already secured employment or enrolled in postsecondary education at only 7-months post-program. These promising early outcomes from the ReNEW pilot demonstrate the substantial need for NPower Canada’s sector-based workforce development model amongst a large contingent of un/underemployed job seekers of all ages.

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the lives and financial security of many low-income adults across Canada, including those who already struggled to afford essential goods and services such as housing, childcare, transportation, and food prior to the pandemic. Since the onset of the pandemic, significant numbers of adults have been displaced from broad categories of jobs in retail, hospitality, and other key sectors, leaving many economically disadvantaged adults in financially precarious situations. 

The impact of these job losses and prolonged periods of unemployment is compounded by existing systemic barriers that limit the participation of women, non-binary and gender diverse persons, persons with disabilities, racialized and Indigenous job seekers, and Newcomers in the digital economy. The Information and Communications Technology Council reports that women comprised just 24% of Canada’s ICT workforce while Indigenous peoples account for just 1.2% of digital workers, despite a growing population. [ICTC, The Next Talent Wave, 2019]. Of the roughly 3 million Canadians living with disabilities in the labour market, only 5% work in the technology sector while another 6% are employed in tech-related occupations in other sectors [ICTC, Inclusivity and Accessibility at the Core, 2021]. While government relief packages such as CERB have temporarily cushioned the financial impact of the pandemic on displaced workers, these short-term solutions must be supplemented by long-term strategies to address what has become a global labour market reallocation.

Economic shocks like recessions can have a lasting impact on one’s long-term professional trajectory. A 2019 study conducted by Stanford University's Institute for Economic Policy Research found that young adults who began their careers during the 2008 Great Recession encountered slower wage growth and delayed career progression for up to 10-15 years, leading to worse social, economic, and even health outcomes compared to adults who began their working lives during periods of prosperity. The repercussions are further compounded by lower savings rates and extended debt repayment periods, exacerbating the wealth divide and perpetuating the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Given that young adults in Canada lost employment at twice the rate of older workers in 2020, young adults are at significant risk of long-term economic scarring that may also have detrimental impacts on Canada’s future growth and economic stability.

Furthermore, mid-career job seekers tend to face worse long-term unemployment outcomes due to ageism and assumptions about their digital literacy skills. A global survey conducted by Generation found that 63% of 45+ job seekers were unemployed for more than a year compared to 36% of job seekers aged 18-34. In Canada, mid-career individuals made up nearly 50% of the long-term unemployed in 2020. Meanwhile, mid-career job seekers from underserved communities face even starker outcomes, engaging in 53% more interviews on average before securing a job offer. Conversely, however, employers who have hired mid-career job seekers report higher overall satisfaction with their job performance and lower turnover rates [Mourshed et al., 2021]. Mid-career job seekers thus constitute a substantial pool of promising, experienced yet unrecognized talent.

NPower Canada’s holistic approach to employment uniquely positions it to address the diverse needs of both youth and mid-career job-seekers. Since launching its solution in 2014, NPower Canada has recognized that, to ensure the success of participants in its comprehensive workforce development solution, it is imperative to begin with understanding the needs and priorities of each participant being served. As a result, NPower Canada places the job seeker at the core of its holistic model as they’re the key agents of change responsible for navigating the digital economy. NPower Canada conducts thorough intake assessments with all applicants to understand their story and barriers to employment and determine their readiness for training. By having these one-on-one conversation-based interviews, applicants are given a platform to share their job search challenges, previous learning experiences, and any personal circumstances that may have impacted their ability to attain/sustain employment. Post-enrollment, NPower Canada staff regularly meet with participants at all stages of the program to develop individualized learning plans, provide ongoing counselling, address and troubleshoot areas of concern, and make warm referrals to services in areas such as childcare, housing, and legal aid.

Additionally, NPower Canada maintains an Alumni Advisory Council (AAC), which is composed of recent NPower Canada graduates. The role of the AAC is to provide NPower Canada with strategic direction and programmatic input from a participant perspective, ensuring that the skills training curricula, wraparound supports, employment services, and alumni interventions respond to the needs and priorities of low-income, underserved job seekers. As program graduates who have successfully launched digital careers, AAC members are uniquely positioned to provide insight into the specific challenges and opportunities that low-income job seekers face when entering the workforce. The AAC has formed working groups that mobilize additional NPower Canada alumni to provide curriculum input and wraparound support offerings while supporting outreach efforts to other job seekers in the community who face barriers to employment and may benefit from the NPower Canada program. NPower Canada’s AAC meets on a quarterly basis, and the Chair of the AAC is also a full voting member of NPower Canada’s Board of Directors.

By engaging key stakeholders throughout all stages of NPower Canada’s workforce development solution, NPower Canada is able to support the reintegration of economically disadvantaged job seekers, including those who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, NPower Canada’s uniquely comprehensive approach, employer partnerships and its unmatched 5 years of post-program services empowers it to not only reduce the barriers that keep underrepresented communities out of the tech sector but also creates the conditions for more inclusive, future-ready communities.

NPower Canada’s sector-based workforce development solution aligns closely with the Digital Workforce Challenge’s goal to support historically underserved communities to prosper in the digital workforce.

NPower Canada supports disadvantaged job seekers, including those impacted by the pandemic, by equipping them with demand-driven skill sets and certifications specifically designed to meet employers' needs. By providing participants with individualized wraparound and employment supports while simultaneously working with employers to make optimal employment matches, NPower Canada is able to ensure underserved adults are prepared in all areas to succeed in the digital workforce and achieve lasting financial prosperity.

NPower Canada seeks to pilot a new “hub-and-spoke” business model that will empower it to deploy its virtual workforce solution to exponentially greater numbers of job seekers ages 17+ across Canada, including those in rural, remote, and Northern and Indigenous communities. 

NPower Canada’s urban program delivery sites will operate as centralized “hubs” that deliver skills training to participants in surrounding “spoke” communities. The hub-and-spoke model leverages NPower Canada’s successful pivot to virtual learning in the wake of the pandemic, which has yielded significant benefits including greater flexibility and accessibility for participants with childcare responsibilities or challenging home situations and improved skills acquisition rates.

In 2022, NPower Canada will pilot this model in British Columbia and the Maritimes, building the capacity of its Vancouver and Halifax hubs to bring its workforce solutions and in-demand job opportunities to 305 low-income job seekers based outside of major metropolitan areas.

NPower Canada achieves transformative impact through its results-driven, sector-based workforce development solution as a proven method of improving financial well-being and achieving long-term impacts on the lives of low-income, underserved job seekers and their families.

Unlike most Canadian employment programs that offer isolated interventions such as career exploration or job search workshops, NPower Canada provides un/underemployed participants who face barriers to employment with a holistic suite of support, from 15-weeks of virtual no-cost skills training, professional development, and wraparound support, to 5 years of alumni services including access to networking, job opportunities, mentorship, and educational counselling. Through frequent consultations and collaboration with its industry partners, including Google and Microsoft NPower Canada’s comprehensive curriculum ensures participants are equipped with skills most sought after by industry, thereby providing employers with a stable pipeline of diverse and job-ready talent equipped with up-to-date digital skills and certifications and primed to succeed in the contemporary workforce. 

NPower Canada’s culture of innovation and its unique dual client approach enable it to adapt and pivot its program alongside rapidly evolving industry and workforce needs. The proposed hub-and-spoke pilot will allow NPower Canada to capitalize on digital transformations across industries and decentralize workforce training, bringing remote and hybrid job opportunities to communities that were previously excluded from participation in the technology sector. By expanding its impact across Canada, NPower Canada anticipates that this model will encourage greater investments in non-traditional workforce solutions and job seekers.

NPower Canada’s proposed hub-and-spoke model is powered by a range of virtual learning and operational technologies. Digital and professional skills training is delivered to participants via Zoom for Education, Schoology, Coursera, and Cisco Netacad, and communication with participants is facilitated via 3CX, Mogli, and other software. NPower Canada also provides laptops and internet sticks to participants who lack home computer access or high-speed internet, allowing them to participate in the program and assist with their post-program job search. Upon graduating and securing employment, the devices are returned and redistributed to incoming participants to minimize e-waste and maximize the useful lifespan of the devices.

NPower Canada’s staff teams rely on Google Suite, Slack, Asana, and Netsuite to effectively communicate and collaborate cross-functionally and oversee central administration and operations. Staff use Salesforce as its secure, centralized database to track, measure, and evaluate participant progress and outcomes at all stages of its workforce development program. This allows NPower Canada to rigorously evaluate long-term outcomes and implement evidence-based program delivery improvements to ensure it continues placing graduates into meaningful digital careers.

As NPower Canada pilots its hub-and-spoke model, strengthening its technological capacity by adding Salesforce integrations and procuring additional user licenses will be vital to ensuring the organization continues to effectively deliver its programs while also optimizing operational efficiencies and streamlining collaboration across decentralized teams and regions. MIT Solve and ServiceNow’s in-kind support will be invaluable in helping the organization develop and improve its tech infrastructure to support its ambitious hub-and-spoke pilot going forward.

The technologies that NPower Canada uses to deliver and administer its workforce development solution are considered best-in-class programs that are widely used by nonprofits, governments, and industries alike. Salesforce, for example, is one of the world’s leading CRMs, capturing approximately 19.5% of global CRM market share in 2019 according to Forbes. Similarly, Slack, Asana, Netsuite, Google Suite, Zoom, and Coursera are widely used by businesses and individuals alike to communicate, collaborate, and share resources. All of these tools are regularly used by leading industry partners to manage operations and deliver on business outcomes.

The sensitive nature of the data NPower Canada captures on participants, including pre- and post-program income, immigration status, encounters with the law, health concerns, and other pertinent factors, in addition to employer data, such as wage scales and human resource management, require ensuring that data is secured and accessible only to staff with the relevant permission sets. NPower Canada’s ability to continue delivering its trusted, proven workforce development solution is therefore contingent on ensuring that privacy and security risks are adequately mitigated.

NPower Canada addresses these risks by incorporating established cyber security protocols and using platforms that are designed with security in mind. NPower Canada’s Manager, IT and Operations ensures equipment is regularly updated with the latest firmware and software, and also notifies staff of any potential threats, such as phishing emails. NPower Canada also requires that employees working from home use secured networks.

NPower Canada’s Salesforce database, which stores participant and employer information, is accessible only by staff with user licenses and specific permission sets. NPower Canada’s shared Google Drive also has built-in security protocols that restrict access based on the principle of least privilege. NPower Canada is in the process of developing a series of permission sets to grant restricted access to sensitive information stored across its various tools and platforms.

In 2021, NPower Canada anticipates serving 1,570 job seekers from communities that have been systematically excluded from participating in the technology sector, of whom at least 80% will successfully complete the skills training program and earn at least one industry-recognized certification. Of these graduates, at least 80% will secure tech-related employment and/or enroll in postsecondary education within 12-months of completion. 

This enrollment target represents a 52% year-over-year increase in the number of job seekers supported. As NPower Canada expands into new markets in 2022, including the launch of its inaugural French-English bilingual program delivery location in Montreal, NPower Canada will be able to serve greater numbers of barriered job seekers from a more diverse range of communities. In 2022, NPower Canada anticipates that it will enroll 2,495 job seekers across Canada while maintaining its 80% success targets.

The hub-and-spoke model will empower NPower Canada to achieve transformational impact at scale on the lives of underserved job-seekers and incumbent workers across the country. Through its hub-and-spoke pilot, NPower Canada aims to exponentially increase its service capacity to serve more than 5,000 low-income job seekers from coast to coast to coast by 2026, equipping economically disadvantaged job seekers with the foundational digital and professional skills needed to thrive in a post-pandemic economy.

NPower Canada envisions a future where Canada’s technology workforce is diverse, and clear pathways exist for all people, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or socio-economic background, to succeed in the digital economy. NPower Canada’s hub-and-spoke model brings the organization closer to realizing this vision by exponentially expanding its impact to reach 10,255 un/underemployed job seekers and incumbent workers between 2022–2024, preparing them, their families, and their communities for the future of work.

NPower Canada’s hub-and-spoke model accelerates the organization’s national expansion initiative that began in 2017. Since launching in 2014 in Toronto, NPower Canada has grown to serve job-seekers across Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia and British Columbia while continuing to achieve its 80% graduation and 80% job placement targets. Furthermore, NPower Canada’s workforce development solution has already been successfully scaled in the United States by NPower Canada’s sister organization, NPower. NPower first launched in New York in 2000 and has since grown to serve low-income job seekers in 7 states. The successful growth of both organizations demonstrates the replicability of NPower Canada’s workforce development solution.

NPower Canada’s hub-and-spoke model provides a highly scalable model through which employer-driven skills training can be delivered to a more diverse set of communities, including those that have been historically excluded from the digital economy such as rural, remote, Northern and Indigenous communities. With MIT Solve and ServiceNow’s support, NPower Canada’s hub-and-spoke model will reduce barriers to entry and contribute to a more diverse and equitable digital economy in Canada.

NPower Canada is a data-driven, results-focused organization that takes a long-term approach to defining success by rigorously tracking key metrics throughout its program pipeline. Using Salesforce, NPower Canada measures results by capturing key indicators pertaining to enrollment, graduation, certification, job placement, employment retention, and starting wages. NPower Canada also captures longer-term metrics including housing status, reduced dependency on social assistance, reduced debt, and related indicators to assess the program’s broader socioeconomic impact on graduates' lives.

NPower Canada conducts surveys with employers and participants to obtain feedback on its program curriculum. Participants assess whether and to what extent the program has equipped them with relevant skills. Employers are also surveyed regarding the job performance and professionalism of graduates and their interest in continuing to recruit from the organization.

Since 2019, NPower Canada has worked closely with its external evaluator, Blueprint-ADE, to rigorously analyze the causal effect of its workforce development solution by assessing indicators such as starting salary, career progression, job security and more, using highly credible evaluation methods such as randomized control trials (RCT) that measure social returns-on-investment achieved beyond short-term programmatic successes including graduation and certification outcomes. 

Blueprint-ADE’s report on outcomes in 2020, released in January 2021 demonstrated that NPower Canada consistently met or exceeded its 80% employment and/or post-secondary education targets. NPower Canada and Blueprint anticipate launching the RCT in early 2022. NPower Canada anticipates that findings from this work will be directly relevant and informative for decision-makers and other workforce development practitioners across Canada.

NPower Canada currently has 121 full-time staff.

NPower Canada takes appropriate steps to ensure that its staff and Board of Directors reflect the diverse communities that it serves.

NPower Canada’s interdisciplinary team of professional full-time staff come from diverse personal and professional backgrounds, bringing a nuanced perspective, and providing customized, holistic support to all participants. Front-line staff include Program Managers who oversee training and service delivery, Instructors who deliver technical training, Program Coordinators who facilitate employability skills training, Career Coordinators who provide regular, one-on-one outcome-focused coaching to participants with a strong emphasis on developing employment readiness skills and goal setting, and Peer Mentors who are recent graduates of NPower Canada’s program hired to provide ongoing coaching, academic assistance, and give participants a safe space to share challenges, voice concerns, and strategize ways to succeed. Participants have expressed a strong appreciation for their Peer Mentors, particularly due to their relatability. Being NPower Canada graduates themselves, Peer Mentors are uniquely positioned to provide relevant, tangible solutions to commonly identified stressors around coursework, professional networking, and job searching.

Additionally, NPower Canada’s Alumni Advisory Council, composed of recent graduates, provides direct feedback and input on the program curricula and delivery model. The AAC’s leadership and guidance is integral to ensuring that all aspects of the organization’s workforce solution remain attuned to the needs of underserved job seekers and the diverse communities the organization serves.

NPower Canada holds human rights, collaboration, learning and inclusion as core values and believes in infusing such values throughout all levels of its organization including its leadership team. NPower Canada’s commitment to serving low-income job seekers from diverse backgrounds is reflected in the composition of its leadership team. NPower Canada aims for gender parity in its Board of Directors and executive management team, which currently consists of 41% female-identified representation. NPower Canada is in discussion with potential board members and anticipates that the gender balance of its board will achieve its 50% target by the end of 2021. NPower Canada is also committed to ensuring a minimum of 30% of its leadership comes from racialized or Indigenous backgrounds. These minimum standards are designed to ensure NPower Canada’s leadership team is responsive and accountable to the communities it serves.

NPower Canada is at a transformative juncture in its journey to launch greater numbers of underserved adults into meaningful tech careers. To ensure that low-income job seekers of all ages are given equal access to the job opportunities available in the technology sector and to support an economic recovery that works for all, NPower Canada is applying to the 2021 Digital Workforce Challenge to secure monetary and non-monetary support in delivering upon its mission of alleviating poverty and establishing clear pathways for prosperity for all people, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or socio-economic background. In addition to the financial support awarded by this Challenge, the in-kind support provided by ServiceNow will be invaluable in helping NPower Canada grow awareness of its services, strengthen its technological infrastructure, and implement operational best practices to allow for efficient and effective growth.

In partnership with MIT Solve/ServiceNow, NPower Canada will be empowered to make a meaningful and measurable impact on poverty alleviation across Canada by supporting displaced workers due to the pandemic as they transition into sustainable digital careers by upskilling them with technical skills and supports required to thrive in today’s digital economy, NPower Canada directly addresses Solve’s challenge with its solution to reintegrate underrepresented adults into the workforce. By providing holistic and innovative employment services, NPower Canada will also achieve Solve’s intended outcomes of supporting adults to gain the skills, knowledge and connections required to prepare for digital careers, meaningfully participate in the labour market, and ultimately prosper in the digital workforce.

Since its inception in 2014, NPower Canada has grown from serving 87 youth at one Toronto location to serving an anticipated 1,570 job seekers across four provinces in 2021. Today, NPower Canada operates 7 program delivery sites that each serve a diverse array of communities, including 4 in the Greater Toronto Area, 1 in Calgary, 1 in Halifax, and 1 in Vancouver.

In addition to geographically diversifying its impact, NPower Canada has also launched additional training streams to give participants an opportunity to acquire distinct in-demand skill sets based on their aptitude, interest, and existing knowledge. The Junior IT Analyst training stream, offered at NPower Canada’s Calgary, Halifax, Vancouver, and Toronto sites, was developed using Google’s best-in-class curricula that teaches participants skills such as cloud computing and information security. Participants can graduate with the Google IT Support Professional certification, which prepares them for junior-level jobs such as Junior Systems Administrator, Project Analyst, and Service Technician.

NPower Canada’s new Junior Data Analyst (JDA) program, co-designed with Microsoft, equips participants with the skills needed to launch their careers in one of Canada’s fastest-growing industries. The JDA program is offered through NPower Canada’s Toronto and Calgary sites and integrates practical, work-based projects and labs within the course curriculum to simulate the workplace and equip job seekers with hands-on skills practice to gain in-demand database administration, visualization, and regression modelling skills. Graduates can earn the IBM Data Analyst Professional certification and the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certificate, two industry-recognized credentials that prepare them for roles such as Junior Data Analyst, Business Analyst, and Junior Database Administrator.

NPower Canada’s Junior Security and QA Analyst (JSQA) training stream prepares participants for careers in information security, quality assurance, and IT support. The JSQA program is offered at NPower Canada’s Toronto sites. Participants learn the Cisco Netacad curriculum, which allows them to obtain the Cisco Cybersecurity Essentials certificate and the CompTIA Security+ certificate. These foundational credentials prepare graduates for in-demand roles such as Junior QA Analyst, Information Security Analyst, and Junior Software Tester.

In addition to these core programs, NPower Canada also offers alumni the opportunity to obtain advanced certifications and skill sets through its Advanced Tech Upskilling (ATU) training streams. Graduates can upgrade their knowledge by enrolling in either Automation with Python and Git or the Project Management training stream, both powered by Google’s best-in-class curricula. ATU programs enhance participants' job marketability and allow them to procure the skills needed to advance their careers and continue on their career journeys.

Furthermore, in support of NPower Canada’s expansion into French-language markets, Microsoft has translated its newest best-in-class educational content to French in order to give both French-speaking and English-speaking learners equal access to its in-demand curriculum in a virtual delivery context. Google is in the process of doing the same.

Below is a brief overview of the activities which make up NPower Canada’s comprehensive program model. All interventions and services are currently delivered virtually due to the ongoing pandemic.

Outreach and Recruitment

NPower Canada undertakes year-round engagement and recruitment of multi-barriered adult job-seekers through outreach to employment services centres, ethnocultural organizations, settlement services, family-focused housing organizations, and other community service providers. NPower Canada also recruits prospective applicants directly via webinars, information sessions, social media, and alumni referrals. Program staff assess each applicant for eligibility and suitability, including demonstrated barriers to employment and need for service, along with motivation and interest in IT. Applicants deemed ineligible for NPower Canada’s program will receive warm referrals to other pre-employment interventions.

Skills Training, Professional Development, and Wraparound Supports

This flexible approach to learning and skills acquisition is designed to accommodate the specific needs of adult job seekers and enable them to engage in training on their own schedule and at their own pace. Participants learn applied technical skills through simulated workplace activities and labs, and experienced, formally trained human services professionals also provide wraparound support to participants including mental health counselling and life skills coaching.

To ensure its virtual program remains accessible for low-income participants who do not have access to home computers and/or high-speed internet access, NPower Canada procures and delivers the relevant hardware to their places of residence, enabling them to participate fully in the training program and, following completion, to search, apply, and virtually interview for meaningful tech-related opportunities. NPower Canada also provides funding for eligible participants to cover transit costs and purchase business professional attire—critical support to facilitate their transition into employment.

Recently, NPower Canada introduced a new initiative called Head Start. NPower Canada has recognized that some participants are eager to jump into the program while others are anxious and prefer to be eased into the learning tools used and program curriculum. To accommodate these different learning needs, NPower Canada launched the Head Start initiative in August 2021 to provide participants with advanced access to self-directed training ahead of the start of the Bootcamp portion of NPower Canada’s training curriculum. The Head Start initiative will enable participants to hit the ground running and provides them an opportunity to navigate NPower Canada’s learning platforms, get a head start on technical materials, and meet the staff who will support them throughout the program.

Corporate volunteers participate in training delivery by hosting virtual site tours and job shadowing opportunities, engaging participants in speed networking events, and delivering in-class guest lectures on topics such as IT role discovery, financial literacy, and navigating HR recruitment. Training also includes a strong emphasis on employability skills such as written and verbal communication, teamwork and cross-cultural competency, conflict management, workplace culture, and employment readiness skills including resume writing, interview preparation and networking.

These career-focused interventions are key to helping participants build their self-confidence, resilience, and employability skills.

Job Placement and Post-Hire Supports 

Once participants graduate from the training phase of the program, NPower Canada staff support them in securing job placements by referring graduates to job opportunities with employer partners and liaising between employers and graduates to ensure that the right matches are made. In some cases, participants choose to pursue post-secondary education, either on a full-time basis or by studying part-time while working full-time. To date, more than 80% of NPower Canada graduates have secured employment and/or enrolled in post-secondary education within 12-months of program completion.

Once graduates have been hired, NPower Canada staff members continue liaising between the graduate and their supervisor to support with onboarding, proactively troubleshoot any potential concerns, deliver career coaching, and ensure that employers’ expectations are being met through conducting regular touchpoints.

Partnerships are essential to NPower Canada’s ability to launch un/underemployed job-seekers into meaningful digital employment. NPower Canada continuously seeks to collaborate with new partners across sectors in order to ensure that historically underserved job-seekers are equipped with relevant, in-demand digital skills that employers need most and provided with the wraparound support they need to obtain lasting economic resilience.

To remain responsive to industry trends and shifting workforce needs, NPower Canada must continuously refresh its labour market analysis and diversify its network of employer partners to understand changing labour market conditions and to place graduates into high-growth, future-focused jobs. NPower Canada’s employer partners also play an invaluable role in the delivery of its program, participating in volunteer events with participants that expose them to the real world of the professional workplace.

Furthermore, as NPower Canada expands its reach to serve new communities across Canada, it must also diversify its portfolio of funding partners and community partners to ensure it continues to effectively deliver its acclaimed workforce development solution and support participants in all areas of need as they progress through the program.

MIT Solve/ServiceNow’s financial and in-kind support will allow NPower Canada to strengthen its employer and funding network by increasing awareness of the organization’s workforce development solution, allowing it to identify new job opportunities for graduates and demonstrating the value of its program to potential donors.

NPower Canada continuously seeks to establish partnerships with new employers, funders, and community organizations. As NPower Canada expands into new markets, staff will consult with local and regional employers to identify their hiring needs and form mutually beneficial hiring partnerships to place graduates into sustainable employment. NPower Canada is also engaging employers as volunteers and mentors via its newly launched mentorship program, which pairs participants with established professionals for one-on-one mentorships during their early career journeys. Should NPower Canada be chosen as the winner of the 2021 Digital Workforce Challenge, NPower Canada looks forward to discussing potential mentorship and volunteer opportunities with ServiceNow.

Additionally, as mentioned above, NPower Canada is actively forming new community partnerships across Canada, including Indigenous communities and organizations. Community partnerships are vital to ensuring NPower Canada can effectively provide wraparound support to participants in all areas of need, from childcare to housing to legal aid. As NPower Canada launches its hub-and-spoke pilot program, it will continue to solicit and cultivate mutual referral partnerships with allied service providers to provide participants with a holistic suite of support while also avoiding duplicating services and alienating existing service providers.

To support its capacity to achieve transformational impact at scale, NPower Canada also seeks to cultivate new funding partnerships and deepen existing partnerships with funders. MIT Solve/ServiceNow’s award will help raise awareness of NPower Canada’s workforce development solution amongst an array of prospective funders who are committed to upskilling diverse job-seekers for the future of work.