A $23.4 million in funding to SCALE AI for training

The HEC Montréal Executive Education will add to its AI education programs

July 15, 2019

On Monday, July 15, the SCALE AI innovation consortium announced that it has received $23.4 million in funding from Quebec’s Ministère du Travail, de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale. This government support, for 2019–2023, is intended to help SCALE AI develop and qualify the province’s workforce in artificial intelligence (AI).

All in all, more than 25,000 professionals, executives and managers will be able to take part in these training programs over the next four years, to update their skills in response to transformations in the economy and the business world.

The training will be given by SCALE AI partner universities, including the HEC Montréal Executive Education, the École des dirigeants (ÉD), in addition to Polytechnique Montréal, Université de Montréal and McGill University. These partners will receive financial support through SCALE AI to make AI learning more accessible and broaden the range of professionals, executives and managers who will benefit, including those from economic sectors that normally have no direct contact with research centres.

“It’s absolutely essential to deploy this knowledge so that all economic players in Montréal and across Quebec can benefit from it,” said SCALE AI Board Co-Chair Hélène Desmarais. “The objective is to mobilize universities, research centres and CEGEPS in Quebec’s main economic centres in order to offer a wide array of AI training courses for individuals and businesses, adapted to changing market needs.”

The ED will use this funding primarily to add to its customized training, in which the school works directly with companies to train groups of employees. The remaining amounts will go to reducing the price of the AI open enrolment seminars that the ÉD already offers.