BMO Financial Group – BMO Financial Group has teamed up with PLATO, Canada’s only Indigenous-led and Indigenous-staffed IT services and training firm, to offer the Amazon Web Services (AWS) re/Start program virtually to Indigenous students across Canada. Twenty-two students, some from remote communities, have started a 12-week Cloud computing boot camp, followed by a six-month BMO internship to learn and apply those skills on the job, and opportunities for full-time employment.
AWS re/Start is a skills development program that prepares individuals for a career in technology with the mission of building a pipeline of talent with core Cloud and Cloud-adjacent skills that are transferable to multiple technology roles. The people participating in this program with PLATO and BMO have been selected from a pool of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit applicants from across Canada who have demonstrated a strong interest in technology.
PLATO Testing was founded in 2015 by Keith McIntosh, CEO of testing firm Professional Quality Assurance Ltd. PLATO is striving to build a network of 1000 Indigenous software testers across Canada.