From Classroom to Career | Kyle Dubé
Kyle Dubé:
Kyle Dubé took an unconventional path to a tech career. Before starting a co-op placement in Gatineau, Quebec, he was managing a nearby grocery store. “It was a stable job,” Kyle says, “but I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
Kyle was planning to go back to school, but was still figuring out the direction to take. Then a friend introduced him to the Software Tester program at New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) in Moncton. While enrolled as a student at NBCC, Kyle took part in a co-op work placement with PLATO, a national software testing and technology services company that uses a train-and-employ model to support tech careers for Inuit, Métis and First Nations people like him.
Kyle’s co-op placement with PLATO was supported by ICTC's Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) Digital program, which provides wage subsidies to employers across Canada’s critical sectors and helps post-secondary students gain meaningful paid work experience through opportunities like co-op placements while still in school. Kyle’s co-op offered something traditional education doesn’t always provide: a structured, practical route into a new employment sector. Most importantly, it gave him direct exposure to the kind of career he wanted to build.
Part of the greater good
Another major advantage of the co-op experience was how directly it connected learning to employment. When the program ended, Kyle moved into an internship at PLATO almost immediately.
The transition felt smooth because he wasn’t entering an unfamiliar environment. He had already trained there, knew the workplace, and had built a professional relationship with his instructor, who is now his manager. “When the training ended and it became my actual job, it was easy to settle in,” Kyle says.
As a Mi’kmaq, Kyle was proud to start working for Canada’s largest Indigenous majority-owned software testing and tech services company. In that context, Kyle’s story is not only one of individual career change, but is also part of a broader effort to build a stronger, more inclusive tech workforce, one in which Indigenous professionals are supported and set up to succeed.
Building on background
Kyle started his new career manually testing websites, applications and software systems by entering data, clicking through workflows, and intentionally using programs in unexpected ways to uncover weaknesses or errors. “A big part of the job is using a program in ways it wasn’t necessarily intended to be used,” he says. “You’re trying to figure out how things might break.”
Automation quickly became the area that interested him most. Instead of repeating the same test steps by hand, he now writes code that performs those checks automatically. It’s a natural fit for someone who enjoys problem-solving and continuous learning. Rather than doing the same tasks over and over, Dubé is able to build, troubleshoot and think through new challenges as they arise. “I like doing work that challenges me,” he adds.
Looking back, Kyle sees co-op as the turning point that helped him leave behind work that no longer reflected his ambitions, and step into something more challenging and fulfilling. His advice to other students: “Take it seriously and think long term. For me, work-integrated learning was more than a job. It was the start of a new career.”
About ICTC’s WIL Digital Program
ICTC’s Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) Digital program provides eligible Canadian employers with grants to subsidize up to 50 percent of a student’s salary over their term. The program takes place over three terms a year: Winter, Spring/Summer, and Fall. Since 2017, it has facilitated over 23,000 student placements with more than 4,000 employers across Canada, and over 65 percent of placed students identifying as belonging to underrepresented groups.
ICTC’s Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) Digital program is funded by the Government of Canada's Student Work Placement Program (SWPP).
