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Vote for their proposal to help them make the final round 

Two students in Niagara University in Ontario’s MBA program are in the finals of the Canada Comeback Challenge, a national online skill-building competition that connects postsecondary students with employers to tackle real-world problems in Canada's public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Larissa Filice and Lubna Abu-Jazar are members of a team that includes graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta, and George Brown College. Under the guidance of NU professors Dr. Galina Boiarintseva, assistant professor of management, and Dr. Anna McNab, associate professor of management, the two assisted in the development of a digital platform, SkillsX, that assesses and tracks the skills of an organization’s employees to identify training opportunities and provide a quantitative metric for the analysis of training program effectiveness. 

The team’s proposal was among 10 accepted into the final round of the competition. On March 31, the top three teams will be given the opportunity to pitch their ideas live for an esteemed panel of judges. The three teams will be selected following online voting that takes place March 22-26, 2021. To vote for SkillsX, go to https://studentchallenge.bher.ca/vote/, select SkillsX and click on vote (no registration is required). You can also watch a video pitch and download the full proposal.

The Canada Comeback Challenge, sponsored by the Business Council of Canada, seeks ideas to respond to the question of whether companies should take on a larger role in the education, skills development, and training of both new hires and current employees to bridge the gap between the needs of employers and the skills of Canadian post-secondary graduates.