About
Real-world experience
You don’t have to wait until you graduate to gain career-ready skills and experience to put on your resume.
Zone Learning is for anyone who wants to get practical experience in what it takes to build an initiative/venture from the ground-up. You can initiate your own projects or contribute to existing ventures involving faculty, business and community partners. Zones can also help graduate students collaborate with potential users on highly practical applications of their research.
Members develop valuable skills through workshops and bootcamps, add to resumes or portfolios with real-world experience that employers look for, or even graduate with their own startups. Participants in Zone Learning work at the forefront of emerging markets to develop new products, explore innovative solutions, or embark on ventures to change the world.
10 zones to put your learning into action
75+ courses in entrepreneurship
DMZ top-ranked university incubator in the world
$750M+
funding raised
450+ startups incubated in 2019
4000+ jobs created by startups
John MacRitchie, Assistant Vice-President, Zone Learning and Strategic Initiatives
The Assistant Vice-President, Zone Learning and Strategic Initiatives, strengthens the links of Toronto Met's 10 zones to the core education and research missions of the university, and scales the experiential learning benefits for students by integrating zone learning into the classroom.
More questions? Contact a zone today!
Ready for the next step? More questions?
If you're ready to get involved but don't know where to start or you just have other questions feel free to reach out!
Use the contact form and a Zone Learning representative will be in contact with you shortly.
FAQ
Zone Learning is a new model of experiential learning built to allow students to apply their degree coursework to real world startups, causes, companies, projects or ventures. Zone Learning is about more than passing on knowledge, it’s about gaining experience that will prepare you for the 21st-century workplace.
Our 10 zones are incubators or spaces where people come together to brainstorm, kickstart projects, and build startups. Zone Learning members have the opportunity to: Grow their network, gain experience, build their resume and even access funding.
As higher education and the job market in Canada shifts focus to creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship, Toronto Metropolitan University is dedicated to equipping its students for success. By getting involved with Zone Learning, you'll work on real world projects and gain real world skills that will prepare you for the 21st-century workplace. Zone Learning can bridge the gap between the classroom and industry.
Graduating from university with tangible experience with a company or team in Zone Learning, shows employers that you’re ambitious, creative, willing to take risks, and able to build bridges to people with different kinds of expertise.
Zone Learning at Toronto Metropolitan University is intended to engage students from all disciplines. You don’t need to be an entrepreneur to get involved, you don’t need a plan for a startup and you don’t even need to be a student. If you’ve ever wanted to try out a new idea, create social change, help grow a company or just work with creative people in a cool environment, this is the place for you.
Entrepreneurial skills and experiences are beneficial to everyone, not just those who identify as entrepreneurs or would like to start their own business. Zone Learning offers multiple entry points. If you're not looking to start your own project or company consider joining Zone Learning at the Contributor and Community level, which will allow you to gain valuable skills and experiences.
Yes. You are initially admitted to one zone, which serves as your home, but because TMU's zones are connected to each other, your “home zone” director and staff will help you find opportunities to participate in other zones and benefit from their resources and communities. Our community thrives on collaboration, so zone-to-zone interaction is encouraged.