JELLY ACADEMY

Founded 2018 Headquarters Fort Langley, B.C. Founder Darian Kovacs

In 2018, Darian Kovacs, a Metis entrepreneur from B.C., founded Jelly Academy with two main objectives: to make Canadian education more inclusive for marginalized groups and to help arm the country’s workforce with the digital skills demanded by today’s job market.

Since its inception, the academy has trained around 3,000 students, emphasizing support for women, Indigenous individuals and people of colour. “We wanted to build a program that is intentionally accessible for under-represented people,” says Kovacs.

Jelly’s training focuses on the “new collar” industry: jobs that didn’t even exist a decade ago. With virtual courses on topics like digital marketing and website building, Jelly has caught the attention of both governments and industry partners that are looking to upskill their staff at scale. It recently collaborated with the Canadian Professional Sales Association to certify a B2B-sales course for its members and has been contracted through Upskill Canada and Digital, both parts of federal government initiatives designed to boost skills training and workplacement opportunities in digital industries across Canada.

This March, Jelly Academy joined the Digital Marketing Skills Canada consortium, a Canadian Marketing Association initiative that is funded by a $10.8-million grant from the federal government and will train 15,000 Canadian workers.

It has also partnered with the Calgary-based Influence Mentoring Society to provide mentors for Indigenous learners navigating the post-secondary system.

Most of Jelly’s courses are aimed at post-secondary students or earlycareer professionals looking to gain specific accreditation, but the academy has recently licensed its introductory course to the governments of B.C. and Alberta so that students in Grade 12 can take its courses and receive credit as part of a workforcereadiness curriculum.

In 2023, 700 students completed Jelly Academy programs, and 75 per cent were from demographics that are under-represented in their respective sectors. Jelly provides scholarships for Indigenous learners and women, and in 2022, it was named a finalist in the DEI category of the B.C. Tech Association’s Technology Impact Awards.

Tech skills, says Kovacs, should be accessible to everyone, not just those with privilege or those who happen to be in the right place at the right time.