Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Digital, Information and Communications Technology Council

What ICTC WIL Digital pays, and the number that changed in April 2026

Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Digital, usually shortened to WIL Digital, is the Information and Communications Technology Council's wage subsidy for hiring post-secondary students into technology and digital roles. ICTC is one of the organizations Employment and Social Development Canada funds to deliver the federal Student Work Placement Program, and ESDC's wage subsidy page currently lists 19 organizations that employers can apply through. WIL Digital is the digital economy stream. ICTC's own guide notes that it "is among the first organizations to deliver this program."

The current published rate is a single tier. ICTC's application portal states: "WIL Digital provides 50% of the student's salary up to $5,000." Its program page and its Summer 2026 Employer Program Guide say the same thing in slightly different words. There is no premium rate any more. If you have seen 70% or $7,000 quoted anywhere, including in older consultant material or on aggregator sites, that tier has been retired across the Student Work Placement Program. Employment and Social Development Canada's wage subsidy page, page details dated 2026-04-01, now shows only "Up to $5,000 for every opportunity offered to a student through the program." The Magnet Student Work Placement Program FAQ states that as of April 1, 2026, "Up to 50% of wages to a maximum of $5000 is available for each eligible placement." TECHNATION, another delivery partner, puts it plainly: "We no longer offer an increased subsidy for under-represented groups."

ICTC still publishes an under-represented groups list, being Indigenous persons, newcomers to Canada, persons with disabilities, visible minorities, women studying in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and first-year post-secondary students. Students self-identify against that list in their portion of the application, so it still matters for the program's demographic reporting, but it no longer changes the size of the cheque. ICTC publishes that 65.5% of WIL Digital students to date have belonged to under-represented groups in the digital economy. Note that the one prioritization right ICTC does publish is different: it "reserves the right to prioritize applications from high-demand sectors within the digital economy."

The arithmetic ICTC uses is published and simple: total hours per week multiplied by total weeks multiplied by hourly wage, then 50% of that, then capped at $5,000. ICTC's own worked example is 40 hours by 16 weeks at $16 per hour, which is $10,240 of wages, 50% of which is $5,120, capped down to $5,000, leaving an employer contribution of $5,240. The practical consequence is worth planning around: once total wages inside the term reach $10,000, you are at the cap, so paying more per hour or running a longer placement does not increase the subsidy. It only increases your share.

• Rate: 50% of wages, maximum $5,000 per placement
• The subsidy is calculated on estimated planned wages, then recalculated on actual wages paid, so sick days and reduced hours reduce the final payment
• A separate application is required for each student, and a student can be subsidized only once per term
• This is a reimbursement of wages you have already paid, not a loan, and ICTC pays only after the placement ends and every program step is complete

Current status and the term windows that actually govern your dates

ICTC funds by term, and its term windows are set to the federal fiscal year rather than to any school's academic calendar. ICTC explains the mismatch directly: "The WIL Digital placement term dates are aligned with the government's fiscal year rather than the academic calendar." This trips people up constantly, because a September to April co-op term does not fit inside one ICTC term.

The three published windows are fixed. Summer placements start on or after April 1 and end on or before August 31. Fall placements start on or after August 1 and end on or before December 31. Winter placements start on or after December 1 and end on or before March 31. Your application dates have to sit inside the window for the term you select. If a placement spans more than one term, ICTC requires a separate application for each term, with dates inside each respective window.

For the term that is open right now, ICTC's program page reads: "Applications are NOW OPEN for the Fall 2026 term. All Fall 2026 placements must end on or before December 31, 2026. The Fall 2026 application submission deadline is November 15, 2026, subject to available funding and program capacity." The intake opened July 15, 2026, at 9 am EDT, and ICTC's application portal states that Fall 2026 placements must start on or after August 1, 2026.

Treat that deadline as an outer limit, not a target. ICTC says applications are "assessed and prioritized on a first-come, first-served basis and are only approved if funding is available," and that it "may implement waitlists or temporarily pause reviews" to manage demand. It will not tell you your position on a waitlist. A November application against an August to December term also leaves very little placement left to fund, because the application has to be created before the student starts and the subsidy is calculated on wages inside the approved placement period.

• Summer term: start on or after April 1, end on or before August 31
• Fall term: start on or after August 1, end on or before December 31
• Winter term: start on or after December 1, end on or before March 31
• If your placement end date falls within 30 days of a term's official end date, ICTC may amend the end date to align with program requirements
• ICTC can fund the same student in consecutive terms, but each term needs a new application and the next term has to show an increase in learning, skills, duties or tasks
• ICTC's published program window runs January 2017 to March 2027, so nothing beyond the Winter term ending March 31, 2027 is currently published

Who qualifies: the employer, the placement and the student are three separate tests

WIL Digital has three eligibility gates, and applications fail when a business passes two of them and assumes the third is a formality.

The employer test is about being a real, solvent, compliant employer. ICTC requires a registered Canadian business, non-profit or charity, a safe workplace, general liability insurance, and workplace safety and insurance or alternate coverage where legally required. You must hire the student as a payroll employee with the mandatory federal and provincial deductions, never as a contractor or freelancer, and you must have the financial capacity to pay them consistently and on time for the whole work term before any subsidy arrives. You also have to comply with human rights and labour legislation in your province or region, keep employment records and proof of wages paid, and reply to ICTC's telephone calls, emails and questionnaires.

The placement test is where WIL Digital differs from a generic student wage subsidy. ICTC wants the placement to "be a high-quality, technology or digital immersive work integrated learning experience for a student," and it judges that from your job description. In ICTC's words, "The job description must clearly highlight the digital or technical aspects of the role, such as the tools, platforms, or software the student will use." You do not have to be a technology company. ICTC confirms the program supports a wide range of Canadian businesses, not just the tech sector, as long as the role integrates or uses digital tools, platforms or technologies in meaningful ways, and it names software development, data analysis, digital marketing, technical sales and business development as examples.

The student test is strict on immigration status and enrolment. The student must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or protected person under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, must be enrolled full-time or part-time at a Canadian accredited post-secondary institution completing a degree, diploma or accredited certificate program for the duration of the work term, must provide proof of enrolment covering the placement, and must be legally entitled to work in Canada. International students do not qualify. Master's and PhD students do qualify. Cégep students in Quebec qualify. Current high school students and recent graduates do not. There is no age limit. The student does not need to be in a formal co-op program, and the placement can be required or optional, for credit or not for credit.

• Remote, work-from-home and hybrid placements are allowed, part-time and full-time both qualify, and hours are negotiated between you and the student
• Applied research roles qualify if the student is on your payroll and can provide proof of enrolment. Paid research positions at a post-secondary institution do not
• Trades and apprenticeships are not eligible, and neither are clinical hours in healthcare or articling hours for lawyers
• Students in single courses, general-interest courses, standalone courses or micro-credential courses are not eligible
• Ineligible employers include federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments, government-affiliated organizations such as crown corporations, hospitals, public long-term care facilities, public and private schools and post-secondary institutions, members of the House of Commons and the Senate, organizations engaged in partisan political activities, and financial sector employers with 500 or more employees
• The wage cannot fall below the minimum wage of the province or territory where the student works

The Net New rule, and the 2026 change that helps small employers

The Student Work Placement Program is designed to create placements that would not otherwise exist, so ICTC applies a Net New test. The method is published: identify how many paid student placements your organization had in the fiscal year, April 1 to March 31, before you first participated in the program. That figure becomes your baseline and stays the same each year. Estimate how many students you intend to hire in the current fiscal year, including those already hired. Subtract the baseline from the estimate, and the remainder is your Net New number.

ICTC's own example in its Employer Program Guide: if you hired three students before joining the Student Work Placement Program and plan to hire six this year, your Net New is 3, meaning you may be eligible for up to three subsidized placements. The application form calculates this automatically from your answers.

The important recent change: ICTC now states that "only medium and large businesses will be required to demonstrate incremental (Net NEW) opportunities; previously this rule applied to all enterprises." For a small Alberta employer hiring its first student, that removes what used to be the most common structural blocker. Be careful with the threshold, though. ICTC does not publish the employee or revenue count that separates small from medium for this purpose. Two other Student Work Placement Program delivery partners do publish a number for their own streams: Magnet states that as of April 1, 2026 net new criteria only apply to organizations with 100 or more employees, and TECHNATION states that the rule no longer applies to businesses with fewer than 100 employees. Those are their thresholds, not ICTC's, so confirm your classification with the WIL Digital team rather than assuming it carries across.

How ICTC compares with the other Student Work Placement Program partners

Every delivery partner draws from the same federal envelope and all of them now pay to the same national ceiling. Employment and Social Development Canada publishes it as "Up to $5,000 for every opportunity offered to a student through the program." What differs is sector focus, term structure and how forgiving the intake is. Picking the wrong partner is a real cost, because ICTC lists a position that is "already subsidized by other federal funding" as a disqualifier, so you get one shot per placement.

ICTC WIL Digital is the digital economy partner and the broadest in terms of sector. Because it screens on whether the role is digital rather than on what industry you are in, a manufacturer hiring a data analyst, a construction firm hiring someone to build out its project software, or a professional services firm hiring for digital marketing can all fit. ICTC publishes a track record of 23,574 work placements facilitated, 19,813 post-secondary students given practical experience in digital economy roles, and 4,053 employers supported.

The trade-off is structure. ICTC runs discrete term intakes with fixed windows and states that it "reviews applications only during active intake periods for each term." Other partners are structured differently. TECHNATION's Career Ready program is also technology focused and was accepting Fall 2026 applications at the time of writing, but it publishes its own term dates and eligibility notes, so a placement that fits an ICTC window will not automatically fit theirs. Confirm the exact window with the partner before you commit to dates. BioTalent Canada, the bioscience partner, takes applications year-round, lets you apply for one or several placement terms at the same time, and funds a maximum of 16 weeks per term. Others are sector-locked: ECO Canada for environmental roles, Excellence in Manufacturing Consortium for manufacturing, Mining Industry Human Resources Council, Electricity Human Resources Canada, Canadian Council for Aviation and Aerospace, Tourism HR Canada, Trucking HR Canada, the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council, Food Processing Skills Canada, the Canadian Media Producers Association and Culture Works Canada. Magnet, Venture for Canada, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the Québec Federation of Chambers of Commerce and the Outcome Campus Connect network cover broader ground.

The practical rule we apply: match the partner to the role, then to the calendar. If the role is genuinely digital, ICTC is usually the strongest fit and adds free self-paced Cisco Networking Academy courses for the student on top of the subsidy. If your placement dates cannot be made to fit an ICTC window, a partner with a different window or a year-round intake may be the better route.

• The $5,000 ceiling is federal, so shopping partners does not raise the amount
• One placement, one federal subsidy. Do not apply to two partners for the same student and the same period
• ICTC screens on the digital content of the role, not on your industry code
• ICTC gives WIL Digital students free self-paced online courses through Cisco Networking Academy, which is a genuine recruiting talking point

The application and payment sequence, and when the money actually lands

This is a reimbursement program with a long tail, and cash flow surprises are the most common complaint we hear. You pay the student in full, for the whole term, and the subsidy arrives well after the placement ends.

You must have a named student before you can submit. ICTC is explicit: "you must identify and have a student participating before submitting your application for review," and "ICTC cannot provide pre-approvals or reserve funding spots." Nothing is guaranteed until both ICTC and your organization have signed a contract.

The process starts with an Eligibility Criteria Pre-screen, completed separately for each intended student placement through ICTC's SurveyMonkey Apply portal. ICTC says that review typically takes 1 to 2 business days, longer if a waitlist is in effect, and unlocks the full application if your submission is selected to proceed. The application itself is six steps: company profile including your nine digit Canada Revenue Agency business number and your Net New answers, electronic funds transfer authorization, a void cheque or a bank letter signed and stamped by your financial institution, the placement information form with job title, description, start and end dates and the student's contact details, the employer authorization form signed by a signing authority, and finally an invitation to the student to complete their own section including proof of enrolment. The application submits automatically once the student finishes.

On review time, ICTC publishes two slightly different figures. Its program page and Employer Program Guide say the review typically takes 5 to 10 business days. Its FAQ says "The standard review time is up to 10 business days from when a fully completed application is submitted." Either way, ICTC pauses the clock if it needs clarification and restarts it when you resubmit. If approved, ICTC reserves the right to reallocate the funding if you do not sign the contract within five business days of the contract offer or by the placement start date, whichever comes first.

Then come the compliance milestones, all of which gate payment: a Learning Plan completed jointly by supervisor and student within the first two weeks, separate confidential mid-term check-ins at the halfway point, separate confidential final evaluations during the last four weeks, and a proof of payroll submission within 15 days following the end of the placement, including the student's first and last pay stubs plus the payroll form. Once ICTC's finance team verifies the payroll information, it issues the subsidy payments within 4 to 6 weeks. ICTC also retains the right to on-site visits, employer and student check-ins, and audits.

Add it up before you commit. A 16 week Fall placement that ends December 31 means payroll documents by mid-January and payment realistically in February or March. You are carrying the full wage cost for four months plus the payment lag.

• Pre-screen review: typically 1 to 2 business days
• Full application review: 5 to 10 business days per ICTC's program page and guide, up to 10 business days per its FAQ
• Contract signature: within 5 business days of the contract offer or by the placement start date, whichever comes first
• Learning Plan: first 2 weeks of the placement
• Mid-term check-in: halfway point
• Final evaluation: last 4 weeks
• Proof of payroll: within 15 days following the end of the placement
• Payment: 4 to 6 weeks after ICTC verifies payroll

Stacking rules, and what this does to a Scientific Research and Experimental Development claim

ICTC's stacking position is unusually clear for a Canadian program, and it is restrictive on the federal side. In ICTC's own words: "The WIL Digital subsidy does not combine with any other federal funding sources and cannot count toward a federal tax credit. Employers could potentially access provincial or private funding or provincial tax credits and rebates on the wages paid, where applicable; however, the amount of funding the employer receives should never exceed 100% of the student's total wages earned." A position already subsidized by other federal funding is listed as a disqualifier.

That matters for anyone planning to claim the Scientific Research and Experimental Development, or SR&ED, tax incentive on the same student's time. Start with ICTC's own sentence: the subsidy cannot count toward a federal tax credit. The underlying tax mechanic is government assistance. The Canada Revenue Agency's published position is that "Government assistance for a deductible SR&ED expenditure reduces the pool of deductible SR&ED expenditures," and that "In calculating the investment tax credit (ITC), government assistance that can reasonably be considered in respect of SR&ED reduces the qualified SR&ED expenditures." The CRA guidance we are quoting was written about the Canada emergency wage subsidy, and it says on its face that the treatment of government assistance for SR&ED purposes has not changed. CRA has not published guidance specific to Student Work Placement Program subsidies, so treat the general rule as the planning assumption and have your SR&ED preparer confirm the treatment for your claim.

In plain terms: you should not expect 50% of the wage from ICTC and a full SR&ED credit on that same wage. Whether the trade is a net win depends on your SR&ED credit rate and how much of the student's time is genuinely SR&ED eligible.

The clean way to handle this is separation of duties. If a student's placement is substantially non-SR&ED work, digital marketing, data reporting, internal tooling, integration work, then the subsidy is close to pure upside with almost no SR&ED base erosion. If the student is going to sit inside your core experimental development work, model the trade-off before you apply, and keep timesheets that let you allocate the assistance against the correct hours rather than against the whole salary. This is a modelling exercise, not a guess. Nothing here is tax advice specific to your situation, and your SR&ED preparer should run the numbers on your actual rates.

• No combining with other federal funding on the same position
• ICTC states the subsidy cannot count toward a federal tax credit
• Provincial funding, provincial tax credits and private funding may be possible, subject to a hard total ceiling of 100% of the student's total wages earned
• Under CRA's general rule, government assistance reduces both the pool of deductible SR&ED expenditures and the qualified SR&ED expenditures used for investment tax credit purposes
• Track SR&ED versus non-SR&ED hours for the subsidized student so any reduction is applied to the right salary, not the whole salary

Why WIL Digital applications get declined, and how we approach them

ICTC publishes its own list of common disqualifiers, and a lot of what shows up there is avoidable rather than competitive. Funding is still finite and reviewed first-come, first-served, so clearing the avoidable failures early is what buys you a shot at the money. The recurring failures we see are timing, documentation and a job description that does not read as digital.

Timing is the single biggest one. Retroactive applications are not eligible, and ICTC lists "The employer started the application after the student's placement start date" as a disqualifier. There is one narrow relief: if the student's placement started within 30 days before the application creation date, ICTC may adjust the placement start date to match the application creation date and fund only from that date to the end of the current placement term. ICTC's published example is a student who started on April 15 with the employer applying on May 5, where funding runs only from May 5. Every day of delay is money you cannot recover.

Documentation failures are the second. ICTC lists an inability to provide requested supporting documents and "inconsistent or unsupported information" as grounds for delay, clarification requests or ineligibility. The void cheque or bank letter has to be signed and stamped by the financial institution and carry the business name, business address, financial institution address, business account number, transit number and institution number. The student's proof of enrolment has to be valid and cover the full placement term.

Relationship and role failures round it out. The student cannot be an immediate family member of the employer or another employee, cannot be a current permanent full-time or part-time employee of the host employer, and cannot be a director, officer, founder, manager, shareholder or executive of your business or any other company. The student cannot be replacing a displaced worker or filling a role left vacant because of a labour dispute. And a student can only be subsidized once per term, so if they hold two jobs at once, only one can carry a WIL Digital subsidy.

Impact Applications has secured WIL Digital term placements for clients, including approvals under the older enhanced tier that no longer exists and approvals well below the cap on shorter or lower wage placements. We do not publish the individual approval amounts, because a number from the old 70% tier is not a number you can plan around today. We use the experience the way it should be used: to write job descriptions that clear ICTC's digital immersion test on the first read, to get applications created before start dates rather than after, to sequence the pre-screen and the student invitation so nothing stalls in the portal, and to model the SR&ED interaction before you commit rather than discovering it at tax time.

We are Alberta rooted with growing national reach, and WIL Digital is a national program, so we can support the application wherever in Canada the placement sits.

• Create the application before the student's start date. This is the most expensive mistake in the program
• Write the job description around named tools, platforms and software, not around a job title
• Have the bank letter or void cheque, signing authority and student proof of enrolment ready before you open the portal
• Confirm your Net New position with ICTC if you are anywhere near medium sized, because ICTC has not published its own size threshold
• Apply as close to intake opening as possible, because review is first-come, first-served and funding is finite