With MTL Connecte, its flagship event, it is tackling this by connecting professionals with each other. Democratizing technologies and promoting their integration is also essential in this industry, whose raw material is above all human. The organization therefore reaches out to young people and those for whom the digital world is still inaccessible. Here is how its director, Mehdi Benboubakeur, is going about achieving the wish to achieve digital citizenship in Quebec.

Lighting stars in young people

Printemps numérique has placed a large part of the digital literacy mission in Quebec on its shoulders. “Despite a worrying knowledge gap at all ages, taking care of young people when it comes to building the next generation is essential. This industry is based on the knowledge economy,” says Mehdi.

PN has set up the Jeunesse QC 2030 project, supported by the Secrétariat à la jeunesse du Québec. The goal is to increase the digital skills of young people and establish equal opportunities. Consultation tables and partnerships with the public and private sectors have been created. PN also travels to schools across the province. The project is aimed at adolescents aged 13 to 17 and young adults aged 18 to 29.

For older students, PN has set up DigiLabs (pairing of creators and companies in the form of a research laboratory), DigiCamp (pairing of students and companies), and the new event series #intersections / digital transformations, which follows on from Digital Fridays.

So that digital technology does not generate identity fractures

"We realized that young people are still very unequal in their appropriation of digital codes. Depending on their economic level, their knowledge of French, their geographic location (in an urban or rural area), their gender (there is a big deficit of girls, between 15 and 20% in the industry currently), their socio-cultural background, and others, it would seem that some young people are more vulnerable than others to digital technology." However, we know that technologies divide: they are sources of inequalities between those who have access and the others.

In 2018, the Cafés numériques were born ( virtual since 2020 in collaboration with Pixsenses). The provincial tour, at least two events per year for each of the six administrative regions, allows students to be in contact with new technologies in immersive experience zones. The project allows them to explore the potential and their interest in technologies, to learn about professions, as well as existing initiatives to improve their skills. "More than half of the young people had never had a virtual reality experience before the Café. Three-quarters of them had never seen a humanoid robot in real life, and almost as many had never seen or tried 3D printing."

In particular, the three communities of the Atikamekw Nation are far from major centres and young people have few opportunities to learn digital tools. Printemps numérique organized a tour of the high schools in these communities in 2019, followed by an introductory coding training course the following year. This year, it is the Code Avenir – Mémoire autochtone event that allows technology to preserve the language and bring culture to life in an immersive universe.

Deploying these activities to reach First Nations communities earned Mehdi Benboubakeur a motion from the National Assembly: "This series of initiatives represents incredible development opportunities for young people in Indigenous communities," Minister Caire said. The director, a gentleman, returns the coin: "technologies generate development and wealth. It's exciting to see that everyone wants to be part of the solution."