Google Canada partners with Platform Calgary to Bring Free AI Training to Calgary Founders

‍

Google Canada is partnering with Platform Calgary to offer free Grow with Google scholarships for the new Google AI Professional Certificate, giving Calgary founders, entrepreneurs and builders no-cost access to practical AI skills training.

"We're not just adapting; we're building the foundation for Calgary to lead the global AI economy," says Jen Lussier, CEO of Platform Calgary.

Why Google Canada and Platform Calgary join hands on AI Training

Calgary's innovation economy is long past the "what is AI" conversation. The everyday builders across our city—the developers, product managers, data analysts, and technical operators—are already implementing automation and machine learning into daily workflows and operations.  Founders across the city are already using AI in production — to manage operations, serve customers and build products. What's often missing isn't interest, it's the structured time and access: the hours to sit down and learn a tool properly, and a low-risk way to try before committing a budget to it or draining personal professional development budgets. That's the specific problem this partnership addresses. By combining Google's technical expertise with Platform Calgary's role as the city's hub for entrepreneurs, the two organizations are putting a structured, credentialed AI training path and an employer-recognized certificate directly in front of local builders, entirely removing cost as a barrier to entry.

The Google AI Professional Certificate itself is built for exactly this kind of applied learning. It runs through seven courses covering AI fundamentals, brainstorming and planning, research and insights, stakeholder communication, image and video generation, spreadsheet analysis in Google Sheets, and app building through no-code "vibe coding." The full certificate can be completed in under 10 hours, with more than 20 hands-on activities designed to produce a portfolio of real AI projects. 

What the Partnership Means for Calgary Founders

For the founders, entrepreneurs and builders across Calgary's tech and innovation ecosystem, the scholarships turn a well-known resource-access problem into a solved one. Three things stand out:

Practical skills & Building AI Fluency . The certificate is structured around applied work — prompting, research, planning, communications, data analysis and app building — so founders and their teams leave with skills they can use in their business the same week, not just concepts they read about.

No cost to access. The scholarships remove the price tag that keeps AI training out of reach for early-stage founders and small teams who are already stretched thin on budget and time.

A credential that signals capability. Completing the certificate gives founders and their teams a recognized credential to point to; useful for hiring, for pitching investors, and for building internal AI literacy across a growing team.

Lussier frames it as a collective effort: "This partnership reflects a collective effort to expand access to world-class AI tools, practical resources and opportunities that will help local companies build, scale and compete globally."

The scholarships are for anyone across Calgary's tech and innovation ecosystem — someone building a new product with AI, a small business owner trying to solve an everyday operational problem, or a founder still shaping their idea. We see that range of people come through our doors every day, including many just starting out through Startup 101, and it's easy to picture the same builders putting this kind of training to immediate use. That's really what Platform Calgary membership is built around too: founders showing up, building in public, and getting stronger by having the right tools and people around them at the right time. 

Scaling What Works: Equipping Industry Experts with AI Literacy 

This isn't a bet on AI's potential in Calgary — it's a continuation of what's already working. Google Canada's own announcement points to Calgary and area companies already building with its AI tools: Livestock Water Recycling is using AI to help farmers cut greenhouse gas emissions and get more out of their operations; Helcim has built an AI-powered payments platform helping small businesses compete on cost and service; and CropMind is using AI-driven weather and climate insights to help farmers protect yields.

Those examples matter because they show they highlight Calgary’s true competitive asset :an immense talent pool of deep domain experts who understand complex industries inside out.  The real opportunity of building AI literacy here isn't about adopting technology for its own sake; it’s about equipping these seasoned industry professionals and everyday builders with the practical skills to apply AI directly to the heavy-duty, sector-specific challenges they already know how to solve. Google's most recent Economic Impact Report from Public First estimates that generative AI has the potential to add $36 billion to Alberta's economy; a number that only gets realized if the province's workforce and founders have the skills to act on it.

Local Ecosystem Building, Global Technology

Lussier is direct about why this kind of partnership matters structurally, not just symbolically: "When global technology leaders partner with local ecosystem builders, founders gain greater access to the tools, knowledge and networks they need to build and grow. It reinforces Calgary's position as a city where innovation thrives and ambitious companies can scale."

That's the role Platform Calgary plays in the city's innovation network, connecting founders to capital, mentorship, resources, talent and now, through this partnership, to enterprise-grade AI training backed by one of the world's largest technology companies. Membership is generally the fastest way into that network, giving founders a fast track into Platform Calgary's programs, its 180+ partner organizations, and this certificate.

For Google, the partnership is an extension of a relationship that goes back 25 years in Canada and continues this summer with its Calgary Stampede activations, including Gemini-powered "Howdy Booths" set up across the grounds.

What Comes Next

Lussier says this is the start, not the end, of the collaboration: "We're excited to continue building with Google Canada to create more opportunities for Calgary's innovation community."

For founders who want the full detail on the certificate and Google's broader Stampede programming, Google's announcement has the complete rundown.

And if you're heading to the Stampede grounds this year, stop by Google's Howdy Booths to meet the team, try the AI tools firsthand, and see what's possible.

‍