The Academic Advancement and Career Alignment (AACA) certificate course was hosted by Carleton University’s Scholars at Risk program with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in April 2025. This course built on
the previous very successful pilot AACA course offered in 2024 under the Placement, Preservation and Perseverance (PPP) project. The course provided tailored training for at-risk and displaced scholars, artists, and activists to help them navigate Canadian academia and alternative careers.
The idea for the course was inspired by the Royal Society of Canada’s At-Risk and Displaced Academics and Artists (ARDAA) program’s event, “Cracking Canadian Academia Workshop.” The AACA course was scheduled after the ARDAA workshop so that participants could continue to learn and develop their skills in a consolidated timeframe. The course provided a more in-depth overview of navigating employment in Canada’s academic and alt-academic sectors – areas where research has identified a gap in job readiness programs for at-risk and displaced scholars. An independent course evaluation was conducted by students from Carleton University’s School of Public Policy and Administration and the results showed that it was profoundly positive and impactful for participants (see Appendix A for evaluation report).
The course was delivered virtually with selected sessions devoted to four disciplinespecific streams: business, science, engineering, and arts and social science. The course featured experts from the different sectors, including post-secondary institutions, industry, and NGOs. The April 2025 course was developed in consultation with an advisory committee of five at-risk scholars who had been participants in the AACA course the year prior.
