A technology expert says he hopes a new agreement signed this morning can spur more Aboriginal youth into the high-tech sector.
Namir Anani is the president of the Information and Communications Technology Council.
The group is a not-for-profit entity that develops solutions to the challenges facing Canada’s digital economy.
This morning, the council signed a partnership agreement with the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples aimed at increasing Aboriginal participation.
Anani says youth who learn high-tech skills in one industry, will be able to take them to many other industries as the world gets more and more dependent on computers:
“The ecosystem of all the mobile apps, the mobile arena itself, the cloud computing — all of this is going to touch on all sectors of the economy.”
By 2016, he says 80,000 people in Canada will be working in the information/communication sector and contributing $2.2-billion to the economy.