PLATO Testing now recruiting Indigenous students in Sault Ste. Marie and surrounding areas

By Rick Garrick

SAULT STE. MARIE — PLATO Testing is currently recruiting Indigenous students from Sault Ste. Marie and surrounding areas for train-and-employ opportunities through its third Indigenous Software Tester Training course, which begins on Sept. 7. PLATO Testing’s train-and-employ model provides Indigenous people with the opportunity to build a career in the growing IT sector while providing corporate Canada partners with a meaningful path toward economic reconciliation.

“Going through this program has been definitely a great experience for myself — I was able to develop and gain the foundational knowledge to become a software tester,” says Brendon Nahwegezhic, Batchewana First Nation citizen and junior software tester at PLATO Testing and Indigenous Software Tester Training course graduate. “During my time in the course itself, the skills that I gained from the instructors they gave us has been instrumental to my growth as a software tester and has been a huge contribution to my growth with my career within PLATO Testing as well. I find myself using these skills daily within my personal life and within my job as well.”

PLATO Testing’s train-and-employ model provides five months of in-class training on the fundamentals of software testing, followed by a three-month internship with hands-on training in projects through one of the company’s internship partners. The PLATO Testing team in Sault Ste. Marie currently has 11 full-time software testers who work with clients across the country and around the world, from Vancouver, B.C. to London, UK.

“Software testing is essentially making sure that the quality is there right from the start,” Nahwegezhic says. “We test the software to make sure it is functioning the way it is expected to for the business itself, the end-users and the people that may be consuming the product, whether it is people who may have accessibility issues with hearing impaired or vision issues, whether it is business analysts, whether it is consumers like myself that may be using the product.”

PLATO Testing’s third Indigenous Software Tester Training course will be provided in-person to students in Sault Ste. Marie and virtually to students in Regina.

“PLATO Testing is on a mission to create opportunities for Indigenous people in the technology sector,” says Jennifer Rushton, VP, Lottery and Gaming at PLATO. “Our software tester training program offers First Nations, Inuit and Métis people across Canada a 20-week training program with all the foundational knowledge that they need in order to start their career as a software tester. We couple that with a 12-week internship paid work placement and successful graduates are offered full-time permanent employment with PLATO Testing.”

Rushton says there is “quite a bit of opportunity” in the IT sector.

“When PLATO launched, the intention was really to build up a workforce in Canada and recapture some of the software testing work that was being sent offshore,” Rushton says. “There is an abundance of work in this industry but there isn’t enough talent, so PLATO is really trying to solve two issues, trying to create opportunities for Indigenous people who are the fastest-growing population in Canada but also one of the least engaged in the IT workforce, and also … growing the IT workforce in Canada so we can recapture some of the opportunities that are being shipped overseas.”

Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) chief technology officer Brian Gill says OLG is proud to be providing hands-on project experience for Indigenous Software Tester Training course students.

“OLG has been a strong supporter of PLATO since they launched in Sault Ste. Marie back in 2018,” Gill says. “We were lucky to have three PLATO interns on our lottery terminal project in 2019, where they were embedded with OLG’s Sault Ste. Marie QA team at Foster Drive. Partnering with PLATO gives OLG the opportunity to be a part of something bigger, reconciliation.”

Information about PLATO’s Indigenous Software Tester Training course is posted online.