The Kindest Corner of the Internet is Creating Powerful Impact

Growclass's alumni didn't come up with the description of “Kindest Corner of the Internet” as a compliment. They said it because it's true.

Five years in, Growclass has released its 2025 Impact Report, and the Toronto-based marketing education community is proving that when you build learning around belonging, the numbers follow.

In a year when AI dominated every marketing conversation and professionals were scrambling to keep up, Growclass did what it's always done: showed up with practical curriculum, real community, and a deliberate focus on the people most often left out of high-growth career paths.

The headline numbers

675 students enrolled and trained across 21 cohorts. $100,000 in scholarships awarded to 40 students, prioritizing BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, Indigenous, non-binary, and women-identifying learners, as well as those facing financial barriers. 330 hours of career coaching. And perhaps the stat that puts all of it in context: a 61% average salary increase reported by graduates within six months of completing the program.

That's not a rounding error. That's career-changing money.

Talitha McCloskey, Senior Manager of Impact Partnerships & Government Relations for the Growclass team, puts it plainly: "That salary increase wasn't just a raise; it represented access to an entirely new level of opportunity."

One story they come back to often: a marketer who had been doing everything right, working longer hours than her peers, taking on more responsibility, waiting nearly a year for a promised promotion, only to have the company hire externally and ask her to train the new hire instead. She joined Growclass. Through the program, she built new growth skills, gained the language to clearly demonstrate her impact, and connected with a network that helped her see new possibilities. She went on to land a senior leadership role she previously thought was out of reach.

The quieter version of that story, Talitha notes, is just as common: someone comes in underpaid in a generalist role, doing a bit of everything without recognition or compensation to match. After Growclass, they leave with a clear specialization, a portfolio, and the confidence to advocate for themselves. "The common thread across both stories is that it's not just about skills. It's the support and access to a community that opens doors to better roles and better pay."

AI education done differently

The Growclass approach to AI wasn't reactive. The team started building generative AI resources for students in 2023, and by 2025 had launched a full AI Marketing & Strategy Certification, a six-week, cohort-based program designed to help marketers and business leaders move past experimentation and into intentional, responsible adoption.

The curriculum was built around strategy and governance: how AI reshapes marketing workflows and decision-making, how to design AI use policies, and how to integrate tools ethically into real operations. Not “here's how to use ChatGPT." Something with more durability.

The post-program data speaks for itself: 96% of participants reported AI as a catalyst for their business, and 92% reported less leadership fatigue and decision overload after completing the program.

AI Skills Lab Canada: closing the gender gap

As part of the national AI Skills Lab Canada initiative, led by The Forum and delivered in partnership with Camp Tech and Growclass, the team ran four cohorts of its AI Strategy & Operations Lab, training 102 women, trans-femme, and non-binary business leaders. The program achieved a 96% satisfaction rating, and 88% of participants reported increased confidence leading AI strategy conversations inside their organizations.

What surprised the team wasn't the confidence boost. It was how fast that confidence became action. Within weeks, participants weren't just experimenting with AI; they were leading conversations, launching new revenue streams, embedding AI into their products, and driving real business outcomes.

Talitha points to how the program was designed as the reason: "We made deliberate space for the human and ethical side of AI, giving participants room to question, challenge, and engage critically with the tools they were using." Running the cohorts as a peer group of women-identifying and non-binary leaders, learning alongside each other and sharing real-time experiments, created a momentum that more transactional training models simply don't produce.

Building Canada's marketing workforce: DMSC

Growclass also continued its work as a delivery partner for Digital Marketing Skills Canada (DMSC), a cohort-based training initiative funded by Upskill Canada (powered by Palette Skills) and the Government of Canada, delivered in partnership with Jelly Academy and the Canadian Marketing Association.

Over two years, Growclass trained 914 students from the digital tech, AgTech, and advanced manufacturing sectors across 13 cohorts, with a 95% program satisfaction rating and 613+ hours of coaching provided. 80% of AgTech and Advanced Manufacturing alumni reported career or business growth within six months of graduating.

The Growclass Tour: community, coast to coast

The 2025 Growclass Tour brought nine free-admission, in-person events to cities across Canada, from Vancouver to Halifax, drawing 276 attendees total. But what stood out wasn't the scale. It was what happened in the room.

"In multiple cities, we saw people walk in not knowing anyone, and within an hour, they were sharing job leads, giving feedback on each other's work, or making introductions that turned into real opportunities," Talitha says. "It didn't feel transactional. It felt like people were immediately invested in each other's success."

There was something else, too: for a community that had largely existed online, meeting in person hit differently. "You could see people realizing, 'Oh, this is real. These are my people.'"

"The kindest corner of the internet"

That phrase didn't come from a branding exercise. It came from the community itself, and it's stuck around because it's accurate.

Day to day, it looks like active Slack channels, thoughtful feedback in sessions, and people consistently making introductions or advocating for one another, sharing job opportunities, salary benchmarks, and hard-won lessons without gatekeeping. "It's not just encouragement," Talitha says. "It's tangible support."

What makes it different, she explains, is that it's intentional: "We create environments where people feel safe asking questions, challenging ideas, and showing up as they are. That combination of psychological safety and high standards is what allows both kindness and real outcomes to coexist."

What five years has taught them

Growclass founder Sarah Stockdale puts it directly: “Over the past five years, what we've learned is that career change doesn't come from access to information. It comes from access to the right environment. When people are given practical skills, real support, and a community that expects them to succeed, they don't just learn. They move. And as AI reshapes the field, that combination of confidence and capability is what will define who actually gets to lead."

What's next

The report isn't just a look back. It's a jumping-off point. Growclass is using it to connect more intentionally with partners and collaborators this year. Get the Impact Report + Join the Growclass Partner Email List

Growclass is a Canadian marketing education company and community committed to practical, inclusive learning. Learn more at growclass.co.