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Industry-Led Program Inspires High School Students Planning to Buck the Recession to Consider Careers in IT
IBM, OCE, Macadamian, and Nortel Participate in High School Mentoring Program to Solve a Skills Shortage "Perfect Storm" That Threatens to Cost the Canadian Economy Over $10 Billion
| Source: OCRI
OTTAWA--(Marketwire - June 3, 2009) - Canadian information technology and communication
(ICT) industry leaders are taking time out from the business at hand to
provide mentorship in high school classrooms. This is to address a looming
shortage of workers that could impact the tech sector and negatively affect
the Canadian economy. In Ottawa, tech mentors from IBM Canada Ltd.,
Macadamian Technologies Inc., and Nortel have worked with the first crop of
48 students in a high school pilot program that hopes to double in size
next year, attracting provincial funding to expand it across Ontario in
future years.
The Ottawa High School Technology Program (www.ottawatechstudents.com)
pilot has delivered seven mentors from three companies to work with
students in hands-on labs at industry sites and in their classrooms that
emphasize advanced computer skills. "The idea is to inspire students to
pursue ICT careers before their senior year courses are locked in. Through
hands-on learning with industry professionals the students develop the
skills they need to thrive in college and university technology courses
instead of hitting a wall for lack of these skills," says Claude Haw,
President and CEO, OCRI. "We must make this a city, provincial, and
national priority for the good of the Canadian economy."
According to the Conference Board of Canada, a "perfect storm" of
socio-demographic factors, negative perceptions of the tech sector
following the bubble burst of 2002, and a significant drop in university
enrolment in IT programs across Canada have combined to create a situation
where more than 90,000 jobs in the information technology sector will need
to be filled in the next two to four years and could potentially impact the
Canadian economy to the tune of $10.8 billion, or $120,000 per job, if they
can't be filled.
"My favourite part about being a mentor for this program is seeing how
creative the kids can be," says Dan Menard, a Software Developer from
Macadamian Technologies Inc. "Their minds aren't limited by established
approaches, and this allows them to come up with great ideas, which in turn
makes the mentors' task of helping plan out an IT implementation a lot of
fun."
Over the course of the school year, Ottawa High School Technology Program
students participated one day per week learning about computer hardware,
networking, team building and the variety of career options presented by
the diverse technology sector. The program is designed around social
computing, the open source community and the "One Laptop Per Child" (OLPC)
XO from Quanta Computer Inc. Students create, with the help of their
industry mentors, a final project that runs on the XO -- from online games
to social networking applications. The students are given laptops to use
throughout the program allowing them to easily work on their projects.
At an awards ceremony taking place today at Earl of March Secondary School
in Kanata between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., two projects chosen from Earl of March
and All Saints Catholic High School will be named best in class by mentors,
teachers and program partners.
OCRI's partners in the Ottawa High School Technology Program include IBM
Canada, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Macadamian Technologies, Nortel, The
Ottawa Software Cluster, Dell Canada, Cisco, Microsoft, Algonquin College,
Carleton University, University of Ottawa, Ottawa Carleton District School
Board (OCDSB), Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB), Ontario Centres of
Excellence (OCE), and Shad Valley summer students and Partnering to Achieve
Student Success (PASS).
Note to producers and reporters: IT demonstration projects, mentors,
students, program partners and parents will be available for interviews at
Earl of March Secondary School between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., at 4 The Parkway,
Kanata, Ontario.
About OCRI:
Leading the way for Ottawa, OCRI is the city's economic development agency.
OCRI is the rallying point to bring business, education, research and
talent together to create the winning economic conditions that allow
Ottawa's knowledge-based companies to thrive locally and compete globally.
At OCRI we promote sustainable economic development to maintain our high
quality of life. For more information on OCRI visit our website at
www.ocri.ca and for more information on the Ottawa Region please visit
www.ottawaregion.com.