Message from the Chair

Catherine McKeown

Chair – EFC Scholarship Committee

Catherine McKeown Chair, EFC Scholarship Committee

As Chair of the Scholarship Committee of The Electro Federation of Canada (EFC) Scholarship Committee for 2024, it is my honor and pleasure to launch our 2024 Scholarship Campaign.

Talent attraction and retention is on the minds of many of our members and has consistently been one of the top three topics over the past few years that keep us up at night. Learning, through personal and professional growth of Canadian students, is one of the cornerstone talent strategies we can lever in promoting new prospective talent to our industry. The Scholarship program is a fantastic way that our members can promote our industry, support the communities where we serve, and solidify our collective business success and growth.

With the increasing demand for electrification around the world, there has been significant and ongoing investment in critical infrastructure. This has positioned our industry to be more relevant politically and economically than ever before. Where other industries are impacted by the effects of an economic slowdown, demand has been strong in our sector. Although we may be facing impending headwinds, demand for our products and services does not appear to be dampened and likely not for the balance of the decade.

High inflation has been a factor that has significantly impacted the Canadian landscape this past year with rising interest rates, higher debt levels and sky-high rental costs. What better time to promote our industry sector while offering much needed financial support to Canadian students during these turbulent times?

The EFC Scholarship program is an important initiative where EFC, through its membership, is making a significant impact in growing potential industry talent through educational financial support to Canadian students. During these times of financial pressures and challenges, this support is vital and welcomed and may well be what makes the difference in a student following their dreams in their academic career.

The EFC Scholarship program is a tremendous mechanism to provide increasing awareness of opportunities to students in many disciplines such as Engineering, Human Resources, Information Systems & Cybersecurity, Operations, Sales and Marketing, as well as General Business Management within the electrical industry. Our collective member company stories that highlight prospective and rewarding career choices are shared with universities, colleges and vocational education centers across Canada utilizing the Canadian Scholarship student database. The program provides valuable career choice for students and builds education and awareness of the great opportunities our industry offers. Our expanded program also offers opportunities to connect at the classroom level with our partner, Riipen, providing access to in-class projects and branding on their school website.

On behalf of the EFC Scholarship Committee, I am pleased to announce in 2024 we will be offering over $170,000 in funding. The Scholarship Campaign is running from February 19 through to June 7 with participating companies such as leading manufacturers, distributors, agency-representatives, automation partners and associations within the industry that have provided increasing level of financial support to Students. Our EFC members are connected with scholarship recipients by providing an awareness of the relevance of our sector as well as their own company’s contribution to the industry. In some instances, these companies view this program as an important talent pipeline initiative and may also offer internship and employment opportunities to successful recipients. All prospective students are encouraged to explore a multitude of scholarship opportunities offered by members of the electrical industry and can apply directly at https://scholarship.electrofed.com.

We would be remiss without providing an expression of gratitude and acknowledgement to all of the EFC Scholarship Committee members who have dedicated their personal time and effort to achieve program goals as well as all of our members who have made this initiative possible for the past 28 years. This Fall we look forward to sharing the list of talented Canadian students achieving Scholarships for 2024.

Catherine McKeown
Chair, EFC Scholarship Committee
Chief People Officer, Hammond Power Solutions Inc. “Passionate People energizing a better world.”

Application Process

1. Register

Click on the "Register" link to the right and complete and submit the registration form.

2. Login

Login to the EFC Scholarship System with your email and password.

3. Select

Create an application.

4. Save

During the applications period, your application can be saved as DRAFT until all the required information is completed and attachments uploaded. At any time, you can download and print your application by clicking on the icon in the Application Summary section.

5. Submit

On completion, submit your application as FINAL. Download and print a copy of your application for your records by clicking on the icon in the Application Summary section in the right column. Note: If an update is required prior to the Deadline, you can make the update and resubmit as FINAL.