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Credit: Inspire

As part of the new effort, driven by Jelly Academy and Indspire, 20 Indigenous students will learn the basics of the industry

If you are an Indigenous person looking to break into the digital marketing industry, here is your chance to get a head start.

jelly academy– a course created by Fort Langley – resident Jelly Digital Marketing and PR— has partnered with a national charity To inspire To offer 20 full scholarships to Indigenous students.

“We are very excited to see more tribal people joining the sector,” Jelly founder Darian Kovacs told BCBusiness. “We are striving to give more indigenous people these skills so they can get jobs right away.”

During the six-week part-time course, the scholarship holders learn the basics of search engine optimization (SEO), digital ads, Google Analytics, social media and public relations – without any prior knowledge.

The scholarships are available to members of the Indspire community. Recognized by Charity Intelligence Canada as a Top 10 Impact Charity for five consecutive years, the Ontario-based organization invests in First Nations, Inuit and Métis education.

By working with Jelly, Indspire aims to help bridge a remarkable gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous workers. In 2016, just 2.2 percent of Canada’s tech workers were Indigenous, according to a 2019 Ryerson University study.

“This new partnership with Jelly Academy is exciting for a number of reasons,” said Rebecca Chartrand, VP of Programs and Student Success at Indspire, in a press release. “Not only is it a significant new opportunity for Indigenous learners to educate themselves in areas where they have historically been underrepresented and underserved, it also marks the beginning of an exciting new relationship between Indspire and Jelly Academy.”

The Jelly Academy also works with the BC-based company First Nations Technology Council and charity NPower Canada Offer scholarships to indigenous students. Another partner is Best Buy Canadawhich has committed to providing hardware to grantees who lack it. “We both saw it [Indigenous people] I wanted to get into this sector, but one of the barriers was having the right and quality hardware to get the job done,” says Kovacs.

READ MORE: Leadership 2021: At Best Buy Canada, Carol Graziani saw how remote work makes employees happier and more productive

Thanks to these alliances, Jelly Academy graduated just over 40 scholars in the last quarter. With the program now running four times a year, Kovacs hopes to keep the momentum going. “If we can continue to see 30 to 40 Indigenous students entering the marketing and digital technology sector every quarter, that’s the goal,” he says, adding that “160 a year would be amazing.”

Reflecting on being an Indigenous business owner in his final year of awareness and discovery, Kovacs admits it’s been a struggle. “It was just so depressing and sad,” he recalls. “So that’s our little way of saying, OK, I can wear an orange shirt, I can put an orange sticker on social media. But if we can get scholarships to train students with certificates and jobs, that might help. It was our practical way of helping.”