Digital Bootcamps Aim To Train Hundreds To Address Tech Shortage
FREDERICTON–There are more tech jobs throughout Atlantic Canada than workers to fill them.
It is a concern for The University of New Brunswick which this week announced a new partnership with The McKenna Institute and TechImpact to address the skills shortfall in the region.
The partnership hopes to ease the labour burden on Atlantic Canadian businesses by delivering high-quality, online digital skills training programs through 12-week intensive bootcamps.
Tracking the skills shortfall
Last year, TechImpact and Jupia Consultants worked on behalf of the New Brunswick provincial government to complete a five-year IT workforce strategy.
The study estimates that, in the following year, more than 1,900 IT positions will need to be filled in New Brunswick across 60 different IT disciplines.
The study hasn’t been fully released but Cathy Simpson, TechImpact’s CEO, says 15 New Brunswick businesses were interviewed, including two colleges and three universities.
The goal was to gauge supply and demand needs and get feedback around where businesses look for talent, what kind of skills each business requires, and their recruitment challenges.
“What we found out during this process of talking to all these businesses was there is an urgent need to act now. We need to build talent in the region if we’re going to grow our digital economy,” says Simpson.
“We looked at data across the country and different reports of what people are talking about–ICTC is talking about 250,000 digital jobs to be filled by 2025 across Canada–these are huge numbers.”
Simpson says the IT industry in New Brunswick had been increasing its revenue and companies were growing, with other businesses beginning to adopt more digital tech. But once the pandemic hit, the businesses that hadn’t been as aggressive or ready to leap on digital technology saw their world change.
“All of these things were happening and by doing this research report we were able to see the pieces coming together,” she says.
The result brought TechImpact together with UNB and The McKenna Institute to strategize for accelerating talent development by offering it through more alternative programming.
“I think we have a great hub of training,” says Simpson. “We just want to do more, and the market is demanding more.”
She agrees a large part of the challenge will be educating the private sector, government, and non-profits about the talent coming out of the planned bootcamp programs–and educating students about businesses specifically seeking their newfound skills.
“A lot of the work ongoing here for us will be bringing students to businesses and businesses to students,” says Simpson.
She says to grow businesses and maintain a competitive edge, New Brunswick employers need people with digital skills like software development, data analytics and cybersecurity.
Training to fill the skills gap
Adrienne O’Pray, the executive director of the McKenna Institute, says this week’s announcement will “open the door for individuals in New Brunswick who may not have otherwise had the opportunity to participate in the digital economy and the digitally enabled workplace.”
The partners explored alternative channels and learning opportunities before entering into an agreement with American based 2U, Inc., widely considered to be a global leader in education technology and a company with the necessary experience delivering the intensive training programs the partnership wants to offer.
UNB’s College of Extended Learning will onboard instructors and work to recruit students in the coming months, while details of the programs will be announced in the spring as the offerings become available.
“We plan to graduate 600 participants from across Atlantic Canada from these accelerated programs over the next three years,” says Simpson. “We’re looking at absolutely all of those types of possibilities. If we’re going to grow the numbers that we need to grow, we have to be looking at new talent pipelines.”
For Simpson, those pipelines don’t simply involve people with four-year business degrees backed by intensive training. She feels finding the right people with the right skills must include many who also find themselves “re-careering.”
“We absolutely think that there’s room for people who have no tech, and there’s room for people who have been working for 20 years and want to re-career,” says Simpson.
“The pandemic has seen us go from where a lot of the companies were driving the bus in terms of when they needed to find people — they put the job posting out — they could find the person, it was more straightforward,” said Simpson.
“Right now, there’s so much demand, it’s not the case anymore. We’ve got to help in any way that we can and there’s a strong group willing to help find new paths to education to be able to get into the field.”
Tyler Mclean is a Huddle reporter based in Fredericton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].