A new EDI-centric track for students
February 13, 2024
Several universities will offer a new student involvement track in the winter 2024 session, to members of the student community who would like to increase their knowledge about equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).
The Parcours Agir ensemble pour l’ÉDI (Acting together for EDI track) is seen as an addition to existing university courses on social innovation, sustainable development, and EDI. Students will apply solutions for the employability of people representing diversity in all its forms.
The course is open to students from all levels and programs, and a few scholarships will be awarded to those who have completed it.
A project involving several partners
This initiative is being carried out with the participation of the Quebec Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy (MEIE), which will disburse a sum of $300,000 over 3 years.
HEC Montréal has joined forces with Ensemble Inc., a movement whose co-founders include 2 HEC Montréal graduates, and which brings together more than 200 Quebec companies committed to diversity.
Partners in this project include the Quebec Interuniversity Equity Diversity Inclusion Network (RIQEDI). In addition to being open to members of the HEC Montréal student community, the course will also be offered at 2 other Quebec universities: Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) and Université de Sherbrooke.
Training and implementation of solutions
Every year, around 15 people, divided into 3 teams of 5, from each of the partner universities, will take part in the course. It will be offered for 3 years, until May 2026.
The teams in each cohort will first receive training. This will provide them with an introduction not only to the key concepts of EDI, but also to the realities of individuals with disabilities, immigrants, Indigenous people and the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
Each team will then be paired with an organization for which they will have to develop a social innovation, and subsequently implement their ideas.
The organizations involved with the 2024-2025 cohort are:
- Bite Size, marketing agency
- Les Socialites, creative and strategic agency
Outcome of a classroom experience
The idea for this course arose from an activity carried out in class with the Ensemble Inc. movement during a Corporate Social Responsibility course at HEC Montréal in the summer of 2022. Students were requested to propose effective solutions to accelerate the employability of people representing diversity in all its forms. The best ideas, including the one for the course, were selected to design the project.
HEC Montréal has taken several steps in recent years to commit to greater equity, diversity, and inclusion on its campus and in society at large. Among other things, the School has developed a series of initiatives through an action plan, in addition to having adopted a policy on EDI in 2020.
Submit an application:
Parcours Agir ensemble pour l'ÉDI - Registration form [only in French]
Find out more:
HEC Montréal’s commitment to EDI
Ensemble Inc. [only in French]