TECHNATION Career Ready Program

Program Description

A wage-subsidy program that reimburses eligible Canadian employers up to 50% of a student's gross earnings, capped at $5,000 per student, for work placements. Employers must be eligible businesses or non-profits, and students must be Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or protected persons enrolled at accredited Canadian institutions.

Eligibility Requirements

• Be a registered Canadian business or non-profit with the financial capacity to hire and pay a student.
• Not be a post-secondary institution, large financial-sector employer, or federal/provincial/municipal government group — Indigenous agencies are permitted.
• Medium or large businesses (100+ employees) must demonstrate Net New placements: forecast student hires for the current fiscal year minus the baseline hired in the fiscal year before first receiving federal funding.
• Offer a tech-immersive position — one that uses technology entirely or in some capacity — that is paid and is a meaningful work-integrated learning experience. You do not have to be a tech company.
• Employ the student as a fixed-term employee, not a freelancer or consultant, at a wage the employer sets in line with minimum-wage requirements.
• Not be filling a position left vacant due to a dispute, termination, layoff or another occurrence that displaces another worker (this does not apply to remote positions).
• Carry general liability insurance and be compliant with Human Rights and Labour legislation in your province or region.
• The position must not already be subsidized by other federal funding.
• Be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or protected person enrolled in an accredited Canadian post-secondary institution.
• The student must have already started their academic program before the placement begins, and the role must be directly related to their program of study — secondary graduates working the summer before post-secondary begins are ineligible.
• Not be an international student with a work permit.
• Not be an immediate family member of the employer.
• Trades and apprenticeships, clinical hours in healthcare and articling hours for lawyers do not count as work-integrated learning under this program
• The placement cannot be filled by a business owner or an existing employee
• Provincial, territorial and municipal funding may be combined with this subsidy, but the subsidy is calculated only on the share of the wage the employer pays from non-government funds