Provincial Government Announces Support for Accelerated Growth Company

  • Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation

May 29, 2018

The Honourable Christopher Mitchelmore, Minister of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation, today announced that the Provincial Government has finalized a four-year partnership with Bluedrop Performance Learning for a demonstration project of SkillsPass NL. Minister Mitchelmore was joined by Mark Browne, Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation and Emad Rizkalla, Founder and CEO of Bluedrop Performance Learning for the announcement.

Over $5 million will be invested over four years to implement a demonstration project of SkillsPass NL, a tech solution that facilitates relevant and on demand skills training to workers and businesses. The innovative workforce technology improves access to training and skills development, resulting in greater employability and competitiveness of the labour force. Potentially creating up to 50 new jobs, SkillsPass NL will help employees and employers manage, track and validate current credentials on demand. ServiceNL has agreed to act as the first department to demonstrate this new skills development solution to support workers and help them understand and meet regulatory requirements.

Bluedrop Performance Learning is a high growth, innovative firm headquartered in St. John’s, with an operating office in Halifax. The company currently employs 180 individuals, with over 90 per cent of employees located in Atlantic Canada. Publically traded under TSX-V: BPL, Bluedrop Performance Learning is an innovator in both the development of workplace e-learning and simulation as well as the way large organizations deliver, track and manage training. Its clients include a variety of government and commercial customers, serving 250,000 users in over 100 countries across the globe.

Bluedrop Performance Learning is a client of the Accelerated Growth Service initiative. This initiative of the Atlantic Growth Strategy is a one-stop shop model, helping to identify growth challenges, while working collaboratively with provincial and federal governments to resolve issues.

The SkillsPass NL demonstration project supports The Way Forward commitment to enhance government-wide service delivery by moving toward a digital service delivery model. The Business Innovation Agenda, the Technology Sector Work Plan, and many other actions also deliver on commitments in The Way Forward to strengthen the province’s economic foundation. The Way Forward outlines all actions the Provincial Government is taking to achieve a strong, diversified province with a high standard of living, and can be viewed at thewayforward.gov.nl.ca.

Quotes
“My government has put a priority on innovation and entrepreneurship. Bluedrop is one of the world’s prominent e-learning companies and is a great example of the type of company we continue to focus on as part of the efforts of our Cabinet Committee on Jobs. Our investment in Bluedrop will validate the SkillsPassNL technology in a large government environment and help to position the company to access export opportunities, develop our highly skilled workforce and expand on our emerging IT sector here in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
Honourable Christopher Mitchelmore
Minister of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation

“Bluedrop has been proudly headquartered in this Province since it spun out of a Memorial engineering class project in 1992. We have delivered successful learning solutions in dozens of countries from our St John’s office. We commend the Province in this bold step to test and showcase this globally unique technology and demonstrate its potential benefit for the workforce. Having the Province as a critical early adopter will provide a key ingredient for our growth and success.” 
Emad Rizkalla
Founder and CEO, Bluedrop Performance Inc.

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Learn More

Bluedrop Performance Learning
www.bluedrop.com 

Business Innovation Agenda 
www.tcii.gov.nl.ca/innovation/pdf/BIA.pdf 

Tech Sector Work Plan
www.tcii.gov.nl.ca/technologysummit/pdf/Technology_Workplan_Final.pdf 

The Way Forward
thewayforward.gov.nl.ca

Follow us on Twitter: @GovNL and @TCII_GovNL 

Media contacts
Eric Humber
Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation
709-729-4819
erichumber@gov.nl.ca

Mimi Sheriff
Bluedrop Performance Learning
mimisheriff@bluedrop.com
709 778 2603

2018 05 29 10:35 am