Back to School .. and Welcome to Alberta’s Tech Community
What a great summer – and leading through to an exciting September, October, and November <Yay – ASTech Awards – Save the Date. Waitlist Tickets, Sponsor>
Of course, what is even more exciting for Alberta’s post-secondary students – is that “Back to School” can also mean “Welcome to your FIRST Job” and to Alberta’s Tech Community.
Technology Alberta is honored to support Alberta’s Tech Companies in the hiring of local student talent with our FIRST (First Industry Research Science Technology company) Jobs program – through funding ($4000 or more) provided by the Government of Alberta and PrairiesCan. These WIL (Work-Integrated-Learning) opportunities are open to any eligible Alberta student who is interested in working part-time (Starting at 10 hours/week) at Alberta entrepreneurial tech companies – while the students are in their diploma, bachelors, masters, PhD programs (or have recently graduated) – across business, arts, science, and technology.
This is a growth opportunity – for both the students and the companies. The students have expressed relief in being connected to employers and Alberta’s tech community, and companies have reported great results:
“The Master’s Student that we took on through the FIRST Jobs Program has made a great impact to our tech company – they increased the battery life of our device by 10%!”
..We have hired the 1st student sent our way – and have come back to hire 2 more full-time. Our company is expanding, and the FIRST Jobs program helps us attract talent in a timely way, where we can try each other out and covert a part-time hire, to a full-time employee.
In partnership with the Alberta innovation community, the Technology Alberta jobs programs are on track to support 750 work placements by the end of March 2024. The FIRST Jobs Program has a September intake now open to both companies and students – so if you want to be part of the program, be sure to fill out the 15 minute on-line application form, or attend the Thursday morning information sessions.
If you want to be part of this excitement, and have ideas on how to do more to help keep outstanding talent in Alberta and grow Alberta’s entrepreneurial tech sector at the same time, we would love to hear from you – contact [email protected]
See you soon – and more to come,
– Gail and the Technology Alberta Team
