Google partnering with Winnipeg charity to give free tech training to Indigenous community members

This Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013, file photo shows Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Google Canada is partnering with a Winnipeg-based non-profit to provide free tech training to individuals facing barriers to employment.

The tech giant announced today an expansion of their career certificates program that focuses on cybersecurity, citing 25,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in Canada right now, a labour market demand the company expects to only grow.

ComIT, a Winnipeg charity that provides tech skills training to newcomers and marginalized communities, will be getting five hundred Google Cybersecurity Certificate scholarships for workers in their network, with a promise of more on the way.

“The commitment from Google is to keep providing scholarships as needed," said Pablo Listingart, founder and CEO of ComIT, "Let's say, instead of 500 graduates who are interested we have 1500, their commitment is to keep working with us to make that happen."

This isn't the first collaboration between Google and ComIT. Back in 2021, Google provided financial support to create the "Recoding Futures" project, a free training program in tech skills geared specifically towards Indigenous communities. About 800 students took part in the program, and many of them will have access to this latest cybersecurity training from Google.

"We will be focusing primarily on providing these tools to Indigenous communities across the country," said Listingart.

ComIT will also provide scholarships to other visible minority groups "so that we can try to help as many people as we can," he said.

ComIT takes a local-level approach to helping folks find a job. The charity will look at employment opportunities in a given city, see what types of programming languages or tech skills are in-demand at companies in the area, then tailor courses so students can fill that labour gap.

"It's practical, that's what's really important," said Monika Feist, CEO of the Success Skills Centre, a Winnipeg non-profit that helps immigrant professionals get back into their occupations.

"People need to get into the workplace fast when they come here," she said, "Whatever ComIT can add, all the better."

Since 2017, ComIT has helped close to 1200 graduates find employment in Canada's tech sector. Listingart estimates one third of graduates -- or about 500 -- are from Winnipeg or Manitoba, with ComIT partnering with a number of local medium-and-large-sized tech companies.

One of them was Anton Shevchuk, a Ukrainian immigrant who heard about ComIT at an immigrant employment workshop held at the Success Skills Centre.

Despite having a background in computer science, Shevchuk was finding it difficult breaking into Winnipeg's tech job market. After taking Java script (one of the programming languages used in app development) courses at ComIT, Shevchuk now works at SkipTheDishes.

"I don't think I would be in the position I am in right now (without ComIT)," said Shevchuk.

"It helped a lot because it gave me an environment where I was able to communicate with immigrants like me and Canadians with job experience," he said. "I was going to interviews feeling like I was ready for them."