Introducing Black Canadians to Tech Skills & Jobs
Elevating the representation of Black Canadians and new immigrants in essential tech roles.
Project Overview
Updated January 28, 2025.
The Problem
While 4.3% of Canada’s population is Black (2023), only 2.6% of Canada’s tech sector is comprised of Black Canadians and new immigrants, particularly Black women.
How We Are Solving It
Through an empowering approach of comprehensive technology skills training, mentorship and target job placement: World Innovation League seeks to elevate the representation of Black Canadians and new immigrants in essential tech roles by 50% over the next five years. Their programming tackles the shortage of diverse talent in high-growth fields of artificial intelligence (AI), financial technology, workplace technologies, cybersecurity and healthcare technology.
The program focuses on developing expertise for Black Canadian youth in the following core areas:
- Software Development: Equipping learners with coding proficiency to contribute effectively to software projects.
- User Experience Design: Developing skills in designing user-friendly and engaging digital interfaces.
- Product Management: Providing a deep understanding of project management and business analytics to lead tech initiatives.
The program also provides participants with mentorship, employment connections and host hackathons for hands-on experience with tangible outputs for their portfolios and opportunities to enhance employability. Participant experiences and outcomes are documented to contribute to Canada’s national dialogue on opportunities for Black Canadians in tech, as well as enhancing a Canadian-centric playbook for milestone-based learning and hackathons that are adapted and used by other organizations for upskilling initiatives.
The Result
In 2023, DIGITAL’s co-investment with the World Innovation League supporting their Diverse Tech Talent Program (DTTP) to exceed its original target and deliver web development, UI/UX and product management training to 500 Black Canadian and immigrant youths. Their mentorship program and hackathons successfully benefited 400 participants by enhancing their ongoing portfolios and CVs to be more competitive in the job market.
World Innovation League collaborated with 55 employers to review program curriculum, onboard participants to employer projects and facilitate employer mentorship opportunities for participants. They successfully facilitated targeted project-based work experience placements for 340 participants within key tech sectors such as AI, fintech, cybersecurity and health tech.
In 2025, we announced our continued co-investment to support another 220 Black Canadian youth with digital skills training and mentorship connections. This additional support will also support the introduction of a specialized cohort focused on AI technologies.
