Google Canada will provide $2.7 million in grants to help Indigenous communities prepare for technology careers and conduct digital media literacy training focused on supporting underrepresented communities.

The US tech giant said more than $1.3 million will be donated to Winnipeg-based training and professional development charity ComIT. These funds will help close the skills and education gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and prepare Indigenous workers for new careers in technology.

The money will be spent on ComIT’s Recoding Futures program, which teaches indigenous communities topics such as design thinking and programming languages ​​and software. Among them, the students of the communities can learn HTML, CSS, Javascript in particular. NET, Python, React and Node.

Google will also award $670,000 to Actua, an Ottawa-based science, technology, engineering and mathematics organization. This amount will help expand a program that teaches young people from vulnerable groups how to stay safe online and how to recognize misinformation.

Actua’s program aims to educate young people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It targets disadvantaged communities and groups that are underrepresented. The program includes Indigenous youth, girls and young women, youth at risk and youth living in northern and remote communities.

An additional $670,000 will be donated to Ottawa-based digital literacy organization MediaSmarts to develop an educational program to help underrepresented communities learn critical thinking when creating and consuming online content.

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