March 31, 2008

DIGITAL MEDIA: CREATING THE NEXT GENERATION OF SKILLED JOBS

Ontario is investing in the next generation of digital media artists, designers, developers and entrepreneurs as part of a concerted effort to ensure the continued growth of the industries that will shape our future and create Ontario’s next generation of jobs and prosperity.

Today’s $9 million investment at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) will help create new research and training programs in one of Ontario’s most innovative, high-growth economic sectors, Digital Media.

OCAD is at the forefront of digital and interactive media design and creation, a key component of the growing global market for entertainment and digital media.  Working closely with industry leaders like Xerox, CHUM, IBM and Microsoft, Philips and Astral Media, OCAD is a driving force in training Ontario’s brightest workers for tomorrow’s jobs in highly specialized sectors:

• Interactive gaming
• Animation
• News and media and publishing
• Graphics and software design
• Technology hardware design
• Advertising
• Advanced materials development
• Biotech and health care
• Sustainable design

Ontario is recognized as a North American leader in these new industries, with some 800 firms in the Greater Toronto Area alone. Leadership in digital media requires excellence in wireless technologies, software, content creation, broadband communications, art and design.

The projected global market for the digital media sector alone is projected to reach US$1.48 trillion by 2009. 

BUILDING OUR FUTURE ON THE CREATIVITY AND INGENUITY OF ONTARIANS

This investment builds on the recently announced $10 million to help the University of Waterloo create a new Stratford campus and research and innovation centre focused on global business and digital media.

The project will have the support of Canada’s largest software company, Open Text, whose pioneering innovations formed the basis for the Internet’s first search engine technology.

The new campus will generate the next generation of digital media researchers, entrepreneurs, products and services by bringing together Stratford’s renowned strengths in arts and culture and the University of Waterloo’s strengths in technology. Areas of digital media research and development at the new campus will include mobile, wireless, sound, video, gaming, web design and animation. 

The goal of Ontario’s investments is to ensure that when the next Google or iPod Touch is developed, jobs will be created in Ontario.

• Ontario’s entertainment and creative cluster is the third largest in North America by employment after California and New York.
• The entertainment and creative cluster is growing in Ontario twice as fast as the rest of the economy at a rate of 38.3 per cent a year. Over the past decade, more than 80,000 new jobs have been created in Ontario.
• The global digital media market is exploding, expected to grow by more than 50 per cent by 2009.
• Toronto is home to about 40 per cent of Canadian digital media firms.
• The Ontario government supports digital media production via a range of programs delivered by the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC), an agency of the Ministry of Culture.
• OMDC programs targeted at the digital media sector include: the Interactive Digital Media Fund, the Video Game Prototype Initiative and the Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund.
• As part of the 2008 Ontario Budget , the government is proposing to enhance the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit and invest $7 million over four years to expand the Interactive Digital Media Fund.
• Many of Ontario’s digital media success stories, such as Xenophile Media and Capybara Games , benefited from Ontario government support to create innovative, award-winning products.

NEXT GENERATION OF JOBS

In today’s competitive business climate, Ontario is focused on investing in strategic areas where we have the potential to compete globally and win.

The Next Generation of Jobs Fund was created to invest over $1 billion over five years to support market-driven opportunities in strategic areas that will strengthen Ontario’s economy, including digital media and information and communications technology.

Digital Media is one of three focused areas of investment that Ontario is supporting. Others include:

• Health technologies and biopharmaceuticals, which offer the potential to deliver better health care – and do it cost effectively.
• Clean technologies, which will help improve our environment and potentially give us greater choice when it comes to generating clean, sustainable energy.

By focusing and investing in Ontario’s strengths, we’re creating more Ontario firsts, like IMAX, the BlackBerry and Canadarm – Ontario-made products and services that are improving the lives of millions of people around the world and creating a strong, innovative economy and good jobs at home.

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See also:

• News Release: Ontario Funds Skills Training For Next Generation Jobs