EVALUATION

2023

In the spring of 2021, the DIGITAL’s, Canada’s Global Innovation Cluster for digital technologies, Canadian Tech Talent Accelerator (CTTA) capacity building project brought together Microsoft Philanthropies, NPower Canada, and their external evidence partner Blueprint to deliver and evaluate NPower Canada’s Junior Data Analyst (JDA) program. The goal of the CTTA project to provide sector-specific, demand-driven training for 4,300 participants across Canada, focusing on unemployed and underemployed individuals from communities underrepresented in the digital economy. This report shares the collective findings from Spring 2021-Winter 2023 of evaluating the JDA program.

2022

In 2021, NPower Canada embraced a new reality, adapting to a virtual work environment and our increasingly digitally enabled society. After a couple of years of contending with uncertainty, 2022 gave us the opportunity to put into practice everything we had learned and incorporate changes to our program and organization to make 2022 our best year yet.

2021

While 2020 was all about quick pivots and adapting to uncertain times, in 2021, we transitioned from coping with the changes brought on by COVID-19, to learning from the opportunities it presented to launch the next phase of our strategic growth. We learned that the changes to the job landscape are not temporary and we must now prepare Canadian jobseekers for our new reality.

What we’ve learned in 2021 is that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the transition into a digitally-enabled society. The changes to the world of work persist as we adapt to the new normal.

Thank you to our staff, board of directors, industry council, funders, and partners, who, due to their hard work, continued commitment, and willingness to adapt have made 2021 another successful year for NPower Canada.

2020

2020 was a year like no other for NPower Canada. Of course, there was the global pandemic, which brought with it unprecedented uncertainty, and a number of challenges, but there were also remarkable opportunities, new partnerships and innovations that made 2020 our most successful year yet.

We began the year expanding in the Greater Toronto Area, delivering our program to 100 additional youth in classrooms at 700 Lawrence Ave in Toronto – a location that now houses our flagship head office location. Enrollment across our four GTA sites grew by 71%, from 510 in 2019 to 873 in 2020. National enrollment grew by 75%, from 590 (510 GTA, 80 Calgary) in 2019 to 1,033 in 2020, including the doubling in size of our Calgary program.

2019

When we founded NPower Canada 5 years ago, together with Chief Development Officer Andrew Reddin, we could only dream of the growth and expansion of our programs that we are now experiencing. While our program was originally designed to serve 100 youth per year, we’re happy to report that at the end of 2019 over 1,399 youth have graduated from our programs.

The bedrock of 2019 was our revised Strategic Plan for 2019-2021. During FY2018 the board developed a 3-year strategic plan that was finalized in early 2019. The planning process included a review of the mission statement, goals, strategies, assumptions, and financial projections. The three overriding goals remain: 1. Become Canada’s leading workforce development brand 2. Scale the NPower Canada program in the GTA & nationally 3. Scale effectively and in alignment with core values