Ray Barton, left, CEO of Vitesse Re-Skilling, and Hamid Rahbar of the Ottawa Talent Initiative. (Darren Brown, OBJ)

While down-on-their-luck tech workers can still swap job leads at the newly refocused Ottawa Talent Initiative (OTI), the organization is something of a new animal following its merger with Vitesse Re-skilling, says OTI head Hamid Rahbar.

It's only been a few months since word got out in April that Vitesse – a not-for-profit specializing in retraining unemployed or underemployed high-tech workers – was moving in with OTI, but the two have already managed to improve existing programs and task forces, and to secure new funding and scholarships for techies looking to improve their skills.

One of the most impressive new additions is the organization's incubation program, which builds on Vitesse's previous relationship with Carleton University's Technology Innovation Management (TIM) master's degree program and Ontario's Talent First Network. The initiative aims to help tech workers start up new businesses by providing them with infrastructure such as computers and meeting space, as well as by allowing seven companies to apply for funding to subsidize between 50 and 80 per cent of the salaries of new interns.

"The goal is to help startups be innovative and hire innovative people and invest in innovation," says Mr. Rahbar, who adds OTI is in talks to get accounting, payroll and human resource companies to offer their services to its startups for a special discount.

Vitesse CEO Ray Barton says the combined organization is also helping startups get government grants and other types of funding, in addition to providing the scholarships and salary subsidies.

"Startups need to be focused on their products and services, instead of devoting time and resources to researching about grants," he says.

Tony Bailetti, director of Carleton's TIM program, says he hopes the partnership between OTI, Vitesse and the university will drive "massive innovation" in Ottawa, especially at the growth-oriented early stages of the tech life cycle where a lot of engineering and R&D knowledge is typically required.

"What OTI and Vitesse have got is a good network of talented individuals who are experienced and looking for something interesting to do. They're not people just out of school. So we're helping them integrate themselves into the existing workforce or create new opportunities for themselves," says Mr. Bailetti. "Most of these guys have what most of the younger students do not have, which is experience; they can deal with diversity and have domain knowledge."

The partnership has also spawned an academic funding initiative that will offer scholarships, research assistantships and teaching assistant positions to 10 graduate students looking to enter the two-year TIM program. Candidates apply through OTI-Vitesse, and the not-for-profit will screen, interview and approve the applicants before sending them on to the university.

Mr. Rahbar says OTI-Vitesse's new efforts will help to fill the tech-sector employment gap quicker by combining the organizations' twin focuses of giving unemployed high-tech workers fresh skills to enable them to compete in the job market, and connecting them with other people in the industry who can offer them tips and opportunities.

"We're trying to change their mindset to help their career and vision, then we push them back in the market once their employability has increased. Otherwise we're just pushing them to blocked doors."