The Humanise Collective is offering its Humanise Masterclass in English Canada for the first time, in addition to the French-language program it has been running in Montreal for the past five years.

The immersive six-week program for marketing and communications students will be held virtually and consists of a 90-minute class each week that will cover each of the communications disciplines practiced by collective members. Companies in the collective that are involved in the program include creative agency Bleublancrouge, media agency Glassroom, consultancy L’Institute Idee, and production house Fieldtrip.

The program runs from the beginning of March until mid-April. Applicants have until Feb. 15 to register and indicate what role they’d like to play on a multidisciplinary team. Training will be offered in English and French, but the final pitch will be in English. At the end of the program, Humanise will offer eight participants the opportunity to move forward with a paid internship.

Valerie Provost, head of talent and culture for the Humanise Collective says the Masterclass is well established in Montreal but with the growth of Humanise nationally, it has become important for the program to expand and include students in the Toronto market. All of the interns selected from the program have gone on to be hired by one of the collective agencies, she says.

“We need to find young talent. The Masterclass is a program that offers a chance for students to learn about the world of agencies. They get training on many disciplines of communications – so 360 degrees – to learn about media, strategy, creative, digital, and production,” Provost explains. “Every week they get training from the best at Humanise, experts from the different entities we have in the collective and at the same time they will working on a real client.”

This year’s program will consist of 30 participants, split evenly between Toronto and Montreal. They will be assigned a coach and divided into six teams of five to work on an integrated campaign for an actual client, which they will present in English to the Humanise masters and the client in a final head-to-head pitch.