Starting over in Canada and finding her power through Digital Skills for Women+

Starting over in Canada and finding her power through Digital Skills for Women+

A Digital Nova Scotia Success Story

Andrea Ureña had built a good life in Mexico City. [caption id="attachment_3505678" align="alignright" width="169"]

Andrea Ureña and her family moved to Nova Scotia from Mexico City in August 2023.[/caption] She had a successful career in international trade and logistics, a home she loved and a strong sense of who she was. But she and her husband were ready for a new challenge — and wanted their two daughters to experience the opportunities that could come from living in another country.So, in August 2023, the family moved to Canada.Andrea was excited about what the move could offer them. But starting over was harder than she expected. Despite years of professional experience in customer service, sales and logistics, communicating in English left her feeling uncertain in situations where she had once felt capable and confident.“My English was really, really basic,” she says. “At the beginning, I felt really, really scared.”Andrea wanted to improve more than her everyday English. She wanted to understand how people communicated in Canadian workplaces, feel comfortable joining professional conversations and begin finding her place in a new community.That search led her to Digital Nova Scotia.

Finding a place to learn

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Andrea Ureña at a Digital Skills for Women+ event at Volta in October 2025.[/caption] Andrea’s first step was enrolling inDigital Skills for Women+ (DS4W+), a free program that helps women and gender-diverse participants build confidence, learn industry language and explore opportunities in the digital sector.“Sometimes I listened and I didn’t understand anything. Sometimes I read and, as well, I didn’t understand anything,” she says. “But I tried to be very consistent, and I tried to get more of the opportunities that they gave us as a free member.” [caption id="attachment_3505679" align="alignleft" width="200"]

Andrea Ureña at a Digital Skills for Women+ event at Volta in October 2025.[/caption] The program's sessions introduced Andrea to topics such as digital marketing and artificial intelligence. They also gave her something equally important: a welcoming place to practise her English, ask questions and become more comfortable participating.“When I started with the program, I became more curious about technology and AI,” she says. “I loved the conferences. I tried to be proactive in the sessions and participate.”Andrea continued looking for opportunities to learn. She attended Digital Nova Scotia networking events and took part in asales and customer service workshop, meeting people while becoming more comfortable communicating in a professional setting. [caption id="attachment_3505681" align="alignright" width="169"]

Andrea Ureña at a Digital Nova Scotia workshop with GrantCo Consulting.[/caption] She then enrolled inPractical Utilization of AI for Project Management, a six-week microcredential developed in collaboration with St. Francis Xavier University. The course explores practical ways to use AI for research, planning, automation, data analysis and project delivery.Andrea quickly put those lessons into practice.While balancing work, raising two daughters and managing a busy household, she took on a logistics project in an area that was new to her. AI helped her research unfamiliar topics and spend more of her limited time understanding the information and deciding what to do with it.“It’s good for me because I can do all my research and use my real time in analyzing, in understanding, and then giving my results,” she says. “Nowadays, it’s one of my tools in anything that I do every day.”

Turning new skills into action

What Andrea learned also gave her the confidence to market her small face-painting business and experiment with new ways to reach customers.“Because of the program, I started my business account on Instagram, and then I started to do all my stories and promotions with Canva,” she says.She also began exploring Facebook and Meta’s advertising tools to promote her services.For Andrea, these were tangible ways to use her new skills. But learning how to use different platforms and tools was only part of what she gained. [caption id="attachment_3505684" align="alignright" width="169"]

Andrea Ureña at a Digital Skills for Women+ event at Volta in October 2025.[/caption] The more she participated, the more confident she became. People listened to her, understood her and showed an interest in what she had to say. Little by little, she began to see herself the way she had before moving to Canada.“Back home, I felt that I was a really powerful woman. But when I moved to Canada, I felt that I wasn’t anything—I was just nothing,” she says. “When I started with these programs, and when I felt confident, and when people understood me and they were curious in me, I just started to feel again the same person who was back home.”

Carrying that confidence forward

Moving to Canada was originally about creating new opportunities for her daughters. Over time, Andrea realized it was also an opportunity for her — to learn a new language, discover new interests and rebuild her life without losing the person she had always been.“It was like a new opportunity — not to build a different person because I’m still the same person, but just to be me in a new country with my kids,” she says. “The main point is never lose the goal and believe in ourselves.”For Andrea, Digital Nova Scotia offered much more than digital training. Its programs gave her a place to learn, connect with others and find her voice again — helping her feel empowered to take the next steps in her career, her business and her life in Atlantic Canada.Digital Skills for Women+ and the Practical Utilization of AI Microcredential Program are delivered with support from theAtlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA).