The City of Montreal awards close to $500,000 for two Concordia-led projects

Two Concordia projects will receive a combined $494,100 from the City of Montreal to help local companies recruit, integrate and develop talented employees, as well as gain access to skills for the future.

The city recently awarded $1.2 million to five skills-development initiatives. These cover five strategic areas: the cultural and creative industries, life sciences and health technologies, the digital industry (IT), transportation and mobility, and clean technologies.

To be eligible, a project must be built in collaboration within an ecosystem that includes education institutions, industry organizations, employment organizations, related service units at the City of Montreal and enterprises.

Concordia Continuing Education (CCE) and the District 3 Innovation Center are among the five recipients and will receive almost half of the total amount earmarked for the projects.

“Our administration works to make Montreal the most conducive environment for our citizens to develop professional skills, as well as to grow businesses in the priority sectors of our economic development strategy,” says Robert Beaudry, Montreal executive committee member in charge of economic and commercial development.

Jean Boulet, Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Solidarity and Minister Responsible for the Mauricie Region, says living in an era of great technological change and scarce manpower is an issue that employers can no longer neglect.

“To meet the many challenges of these realities, businesses need to innovate the way they manage and recruit new employees,” he adds. “Through the Accélérer les talents project — which we support financially — my Ministry is proud to endorse participating companies in developing skills for the workforce.”

2 cutting-edge Concordia initiatives

For its project, CCE will receive $244,100 to develop a robust applied cyber resilience program for all professionals and organizations impacted by cybersecurity issues. The program aims to alleviate the talent shortage in the cyber resilience sphere.

The design of the program starts with the competencies employers desire. Experienced industry professionals will then contribute to develop the course contents.

The program also includes a mentoring portion, internships, scholarships, support for job searching and job opportunities. Through internships, the project provides participants with opportunities to hone their learnings in practical situations and facilitates their integration into the workforce upon completion.

CCE’s ecosystem partners on this initiative include Deloitte, IT services of the Ville de Montreal, Cyber Eco, TECHNOCompétences, YES Montreal and CITIM. More agreements are in discussion with other valuable strategic contributors to the Montreal economy.

“Through the funding for the Accélérer les talents initiative, the Ville de Montreal provides us with this wonderful opportunity for collaboration with our ecosystem partners to develop a pertinent and innovative solution to meet the urgent need for a qualified workforce in cyber resilience,” says Isabel Dunnigan, associate-vice president and executive director of CCE.

District 3’s project falls under the life sciences and health technologies sector. Its aim is to help the life sciences industry with its shortage of scientific talent, as well as to train graduates who have trouble finding jobs that match their skill sets.

District 3 will be providing experiential and multidisciplinary internship opportunities for graduates to acquire essential skills to thrive in the job market, as well as empower them to develop innovative solutions for startups and industry.

The city earmarked $250,000 for District 3’s initiative. Projects include developing solutions using machine learning and AI, as well as developing technology based applications in biotech and drug discovery.

District 3 will work closely with the Montreal ecosystem to promote the program with international students and new immigrants. Partners include Montréal InVivo, Je Choisis Montréal, CEDEC, Laboratoires CDL Inc., Biron Groupe Santé, among others.

“Montreal has the DNA to innovate and create world-changing impact in the digital health and life sciences sectors,” says Xavier-Henri Hervé, executive director of District 3.

“Thanks to the support of the Ville de Montréal, Concordia's District 3 will be creating collisions between researchers, student talent and industry that will have tremendous economic impact.”

Find out more about District 3 and Concordia Continuing Education.