Industrial AI & Innovation Bootcamps

AI Bootcamps
When & where
  • Canada
Who it's for
  • Registered businesses or not-for profit organizations in Canada
AI Bootcamps
Program Overview
 
ICTC’s Industrial AI & Innovation Bootcamps help Canadian employers and post-secondary students build practical AI skills and apply them to real-world business opportunities.
 

Read the original announcement here.

ICTC’s Industrial AI & Innovation Bootcamps are an eight-week program where employers and their post-secondary student hire(s) work together to develop industry-relevant AI skills and apply them to real business needs. Powered by ICTC’s evidence-driven Labour Market Intelligence (LMI) and designed for Canada's priority economic sectors — including aerospace & defence, manufacturing, and natural resources (including critical minerals) — the bootcamps emphasize real industrial AI deployment and implementation readiness.

A General stream is also available for employers that do not fall under a specific sector.

Register your interest today.
 

What your organization gains


Over eight weeks, employer–student teams focus on practical ways to bring AI into the workplace, from identifying a real organizational challenge, developing and testing an AI prototype, and developing a 90-day implementation plan to successfully embed the solution within your organization. You’ll also be supported by industry coaches that bring international best practices and emerging learnings from your sector.

A detailed overview of the eight-week curriculum is available here.
 

Participating teams will work toward:
 
Identifying practical AI opportunities

Explore where AI could support your team’s workflows, processes, or products/services by increasing growth and productivity.

Developing a working prototype

Work with your student hire(s) as your project champions to develop and test an AI solution based on a real business need or opportunity within your organization.

Creating a path forward

Build a 90-day implementation plan to help move the idea toward actual adoption within your organization following the Bootcamp. 

Supporting AI & innovation champions

Bootcamp participants go beyond how to simply use AI tools to become AI implementation and innovation champions who help translate emerging tech into greater productivity, competitiveness, and value for your business.
 

Program Information:

 

AI fundamentals and responsible use  

Sector-specific AI applications in aerospace & defence, manufacturing, or natural resources (including critical minerals), or a general stream.
 

Generative and agentic AI  

AI in robotics, industrial automation, computer vision, systems integration, industrial Internet of Things (IoT) environments, cloud technologies, cybersecurity, and data engineering foundations.
 

The eight-week program brings employers and their student hire(s) together as project teams. Ideally, a management representative from your organization is involved to bring your organization’s context and validate assumptions throughout the project. 

Participants will take part in: 

  • Shared AI learning sessions 
  • Employer- and student-specific learning activities 
  • Hands-on project development 
  • Peer feedback and project validation 
  • Implementation readiness and sustainability planning 

By the end of the Bootcamp, teams will have developed a working prototype and a 90-day plan for moving the project forward.

Eligible employers should: 

  • Have a registered business or not-for-profit organization in Canada
  • Be highly motivated in exploring and adopting practical AI solutions within their organization
  • Be prepared to collaborate and empower their team member(s) and student hire(s) on a workplace AI project for the full eight weeks for roughly 8-10 hours per week (this is an estimate of cumulative time that participants will spend working on the solution for your organization, not classroom hours that take them away from regular responsibilities)
  • Have their student hire(s) supported by wage subsidies through ICTC’s Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) Digital program 

Note: These Bootcamps are ideal for small- to medium-sized organizations with 50-200 employees and are not designed for very early-stage or pre-revenue companies not yet resourced to sustain investments in AI usage, or for large enterprises already using AI in their core business processes.

As part of your organization's participation in this program, any information, business practices, or intellectual property unique to your organization that you share with ICTC or the industry coaches supporting your learning will be treated as strictly confidential: it will not be recorded without your explicit consent, will not be shared or disclosed to third parties or other program participants outside of your team, and will be used solely to support your organization's participation in the program.

Eligible employers participating in the Bootcamps can also receive a wage subsidy of up to $5,000 to support a participating student hire through ICTC’s WIL Digital program. Employers are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the wage subsidy for their student hire(s) participating in the AI Bootcamps by applying for WIL Digital here.

 

To learn more about the AI Bootcamps or for application assistance, please email @email.

FUNDER