Designership
Real Projects, Real Impact
Do you want to have a meaningful impact on the world around you? Every summer, Bridgeable partners with community organizations to work on important initiatives and invites creative problem solvers from diverse backgrounds to join our team.
The application for the Designership focuses on your ability to embrace and understand complex challenges and share your thinking and problem-solving skills.
You don’t need to be a designer or have experience in service design to apply. You just need an appetite for learning and a desire to create meaningful change. We’ll give you the tools and support you need to be successful.
- Application Process
- Application Instructions
- General Guidelines
- Scorecard
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Info Sessions
Application Process
This year’s application process is happening in three stages:
1
Submit Your Application
Our team will be reviewing submissions on a rolling basis until mid-January. To ensure the process is equitable, submissions will be anonymized before the review team scores applications. The highest-scoring submissions will be invited to a virtual panel interview. Review this scorecard to see how your submission will be scored.
2
Virtual Panel Interview
If you are among the highest-scoring submissions, we’ll contact you to attend a panel interview with members of the Bridgeable team. At this stage, you may be asked to share additional information, such as a resume, to help demonstrate your professional training or other relevant experience.
3
Final Selection
After the panel interview, the review team will recommend candidates to be hired for an internship role. Bridgeable will hire a team of interns for the summer. Designership begins in May 2025 and runs until August 2025.
Application Instructions
Your Designership submission is an opportunity to showcase your ability to embrace and understand complex challenges and show us your thinking and problem-solving skills.
You have the choice to submit your response in one of two ways:
Option 1
Share a project that you’ve worked on in the past
Share a project or initiative that you have led or contributed to that demonstrates your ability to address complexity and ambiguity related to a particular challenge.
Option 2
Share a project you would like to work on in the future
Share with us a project that you would hope to complete in the future. Your submission should address an existing complex challenge that you are passionate about and should demonstrate your unique skills and ability to address the problem.
To ensure the process is equitable, please remove any identifiable information from your project submission.
The reviewing committee will score your submission separately from your resume, and your resume will only be brought forward after you are selected for the panel interview.
General Guidelines
We know that everyone communicates differently and we want to ensure that you have the flexibility to prepare your submission in the format of your choice. We also anticipate receiving a large number of submissions for this year’s Designership.
Please consider the following guidelines as you prepare your submission, to help our team give each submission the time and attention it deserves.
To keep the process equitable, our team will be reviewing applications with personal information anonymized.
We are only able to review one project per submission and recommend sharing a direct link to the project that you’d like to showcase. Please do not submit your whole portfolio.
Possible formats include but are not limited to:
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Video recording – try to keep it to less than 5 minutes in length
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Audio recording – try to keep it to less than 5 minutes in length
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Slide presentation (eg. Powerpoint, Google Slides) – try to keep it to 10 slides
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Word document – try to keep it to between 1 and 2 pages
Your submission should clearly explain the following:
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The problem you are addressing
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Why this problem is important to you
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The process you took (or would take) to address it
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The intended impact of the project
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Key lessons you learned (or hope to learn)
Scorecard
All application submissions will be scored against this scorecard.
Please ensure you review this when crafting your submission. Considering these criteria will give your application the best opportunity to score highly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can non-designers apply?
Yes! You don’t need to be a trained designer to be a successful Designership participant. We’d love to hear from people with diverse, multi-disciplinary backgrounds with an appetite for learning and having an impact. The only catch at this time: you must be eligible to work in Canada by the time the Designership begins.
Can this lead to a full-time job?
Fun fact: All of last year’s Designership hires who were eligible were offered full-time roles following the program! We also have several other Bridgers who first joined us at the Designership level. If there are relevant full-time opportunities open after your time in the Designership, past participants will be strongly considered.
Will I be paid?
Yes, the position is paid. Designership participants can expect to earn a competitive $25/hour salary. We’d be happy to share more details and answer questions at the panel interviews.
Info Sessions
Want to learn more about Designership?
We strongly encourage interested participants to join our virtual info sessions.
The sessions are led by senior leaders and past Designership participants. They will discuss everything you need to know about the Designership program, run through our scorecard, and offer application submission tips. Previous Designership participants will also be available for a Q&A session.
Applications will open on Thursday, October 24th at 12:00 PM ET.
We strongly recommend that interested participants attend one of our upcoming virtual info sessions before applying.
Past Projects
work
Bridging the Gap: Expanding access to clinical trials in New Brunswick
2023: Horizon Health Network
work
Social Prescribing: A holistic approach to improving the health and well-being of Canadians
2022: Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing
work
A design-based approach to youth homelessness policy development
2019: Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Demonstration Lab
work
Reimagining the home care experience for older adults in Ontario
2018: SE Health
work
Unlocking shared mobility in the GTHA
2017: MaRS
work
Helping low-to-moderate-income credit union members spend less and save more
2017: Credit Human
work
Enabling the successful launch of an innovative hypertension prevention program
2016: Heart and Stroke Foundation
work
Prototyping citizen-centric access to electronic health records
2015: MaRS
work
Helping low-income families take advantage of RESP support programs
2014: Prosper Canada
work
Moving from great food to a great experience
2013: Foodshare
Land Acknowledgement
Bridgeable is a service design studio whose office occupies land in Toronto, Ontario. We acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples, and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit.