When it comes to the tech space, there isn’t always a seat at the table for everyone.
That’s why one duo in Toronto wants to change that, one student, and a dream, at a time.
Helen Huang and Sefunmi Osinaike are the masterminds behind Co.Lab, a mentorship-based program geared towards people who want to get a head start in tech but aren’t quite sure how.
What separates their program from a lot of the traditional ones out there is that they focus on getting people, who are otherwise minorities in the industry, more comfortable taking up space.
The two founders launched their platform three years ago and have already created buzz in the tech space while continuously breaking barriers for the Black and Asian diaspora.
Together, they helped train over 1,000 professionals in over 60 countries.
YOU BELONG IN TECH
“Our entire motto at Co.Lab is you belong in tech. When you’re outside the club, everything inside seems so mysterious. All you do is hyper fixate on the things you don’t feel like you have. That’s why representation matters so much. A lot of people don’t know what is possible. They can’t see it, and by extension, can’t dream it,” Huang told Now Toronto in an email statement.
Osinaike and Huang were also Forbes 30 under 30 recipients for 2022 and say that they’ve come a long way from being unsure of their place to creating a place for people like them.
“Early in my career I tried to apply for tech jobs like BlackBerry and one of my Black friends said those jobs are not for us. And that stays with you. But the more Black people I began to see and meet in the tech space, the more I quickly realized that it’s more than possible, and I can do it too,” Osinaike shared.
“A lot of the people who come to Co.Lab are people of colour, they are minorities in their spaces and a lot of the time they have to code switch or question whether they are a diversity hire,” he continued.
DIVERSE TECH TALENT PROGRAM
Co.lab recently wrapped up its Diverse Tech Talent Program (DTTP), a federally-funded project helping to upskill around 500 Black Canadians and new immigrants, and give them the resources they need to land jobs within a year.
This was also in part thanks to its collaboration with three other Black-led organizations.
Osinaike and Huangare are also no strangers to their students becoming masters in their fields, as many of their alumni now work at companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Shopify.
Additionally, since 2021, Co.Lab grads have obtained cumulative annual salaries of over $50M post-program, according to the pair.
Impressively, 90 per cent of the people they train are people of colour, while 40 per cent are women and to top it off, their program has a 92 per cent program completion rate.
“I think intersectionality matters. We are bringing every facet of ourselves, our personalities and how we grew up. It’s what helps us decide what projects to pick up. It’s about how we treat our team, how Sefunmi and I treat each other,” Huang said.
