Four years ago, Aaron Tomlinson was released from the Canadian Armed Forces on medical grounds after serving for 30 years.
His deployments included a peacekeeping mission with the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights in 2004. His service has been recognized with several honours, including the Canadian Forces Decoration with bar, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, the Canadian Forces Peacekeeping Decoration, and the UNDOF tour medal.
Having worked in military communications and technical operations, Tomlinson is now taking those skills and applying them to a new battlefield: cybersecurity.
OBJ360 (Sponsored)
Adapting to hybrid Work: How IAV Is simplifying office technology with BYOD solutions
You may have heard of BYOB, but have you heard of BYOD? BYOD, also known as “Bring your own device” is becoming a common practice for companies following hybrid work
Ontario SMEs gain access to cutting-edge cybersecurity training
uOttawa Professor Guy-Vincent Jourdan says he initially never would have guessed a year ago he’d be concocting simulated social media feeds and made-up news broadcasts. But that was before becoming
When he left service in the midst of the pandemic in December 2020, his former boss directed him to a program called Coding for Veterans that aims to give military veterans a second career.
“I gave (the program’s executive director) a call and we found that we had a lot in common in terms of our knowledge and experience and he thought I’d be a good fit for the program, so I signed up. It’s new and challenging,” Tomlinson told OBJ in an interview.
Tomlinson, who lives in Ottawa, says the program is a great way to put veterans’ skills to good use after their time in service.
“There’s a lot of us that leave service injured — physically, mentally or both. It’s a great way to use your mind, your brain, your experience, while your body is healing after your (time in the) military,” Tomlinson said.
He plans on staying in Ottawa post-certification to find a job at one of the many tech companies in the nation’s capital, such as IBM.
The program, run by the Professional Development Institute at the University of Ottawa, trains Canadian veterans in software development and cybersecurity and delivers its self-paced, 650-hour course completely online. Students usually complete the program in 12-18 months.
It began in 2019 with five students and has since helped nearly 1,000 veterans get “from the battlefield to the cyberfield.”
Last year, the program expanded to the U.S. to retrain American veterans through the University of Southern California.
To celebrate its five-year anniversary, the program unveiled a 55-foot float in the New Year’s Day parade in Pasadena, Calif., to raise its profile with the more than 56 million people that view the parade in-person and online, according to the program’s executive director Jeff Musson.
The float featured three military vehicles made entirely out of natural materials. The Black Hawk helicopter was made of parsley, the F-35 fighter jet was made of seaweed, and the replica of the USS Princeton missile cruiser was made of silverleaf.
The real USS Princeton is currently on deployment, so Coding for Veterans invited the family members of those aboard the ship to help decorate the float.
Musson told OBJ about the Canada-U.S. link to the inclusion of the USS Princeton, beyond the program’s expansion into the U.S.
“When the ship first launched, its first deployment was in the Persian Gulf and it unfortunately hit a mine in the water. It called upon the HMCS Athabasca, one of our Canadian ships, to clear the minefield and tow it to port for repairs,” he said.
Coding for Veterans won the international award for most outstanding float from outside the U.S. for the second year in a row.
Next-gen AI stream added to program
Musson said the highlight of the past five years has been helping veterans like Tomlinson find a second career.
“It’s been a wild ride. What better way to honour the service and sacrifice of those men and women than by providing stable careers upon their leaving the military,” Musson said.
Coding For Veterans wanted to partner with the University of Ottawa as it is the world’s largest bilingual university, he added.
“First thing is, for us, it was a natural fit because we wanted to offer the program in English and French. The second thing is the Professional Development Institute … is one of the most progressive and advanced academic post-secondary institutions in the country. They not only have a state-of-the-art cyber-range, which opened last year, but they’ve also got a disinformation lab,” he said.
Serge Blais, executive director of the institute, said the placement rate for students is “close to 100 per cent,” calling Coding For Veterans the institute’s most successful program.
That kind of success has led the program to create a third stream in next-gen AI, in addition to the current offerings of cybersecurity and software development, Musson told OBJ.
“We will be training individuals in the area of AI, which will also include industry certifications. That’s a direct response or result of employers saying, ‘This is a skill set we would like to have.’ We really make sure that our program is in alignment with what industry requires, which will translate into jobs,” Musson said.
Blais said the new AI stream will be validated by “having potential employers assess the quality of the program and the skills taught in the program.” The new stream will also take 650 hours to complete.
Blais said programs like these have become “mission critical” for the University of Ottawa.
“We offer research, baccalaureate degree programs and graduate programs, but the fourth pillar of the university is professional development offerings. We offer programs to about 12,000 people a year for a few years and not just across the country, but internationally. It’s becoming a central feature of the university to engage in professional development in areas where there’s a huge demand, such as cybersecurity and AI,” Blais told OBJ.
