TORONTO – Interactive Ontario (IO) has announced two new initiatives designed to improve diversity and inclusion in the interactive digital media sector.
The first, known as the IO ipprenticeship Program, will provide week-long apprenticeship placements at digital media companies to candidates who may have experienced barriers to entry in the IDM sector due to race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, religion or class.
The inaugural cohort participants include Ubisoft Toronto – Women in Games ipprenticeship; Groupe Média TFO – Digital, Educational, Francophone media ipprenticeship; and DHX Media – Youth of Underrepresented Background web design and/or IT ipprenticeship.
In addition, IO said that its next research project will be a ‘Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit’ that aims to tackle barriers to diversity and inclusion in the Ontario IDM sector. Through interviews with company owners, HR leads and members of equity-seeking groups, IO will provide practical resources for companies wishing to increase diversity and improve inclusion on their teams.
“These initiatives emerged in response to statistics from the recently-released Interactive Ontario report, Measuring Success: The Impact of the Interactive Digital Media Sector in Ontario,” said IO executive director Christa Dickenson, in the announcement. “The numbers suggest that there is room for improvement with respect to diversity and inclusion in the sector and we hope that these two initiatives will help move the needle.”
Interactive Ontario is a not-for-profit trade association committed to the growth of the interactive digital media (IDM) industry through government advocacy, events, trade missions, connections to business development opportunities and research. It represents over 330 IDM companies companies working in e-Learning, video games, multiplatform storytelling, mobile apps, virtual and augmented reality, and web series.
