B.C. technology education program aims to shrink industry’s diversity gaps

“It really focuses on the soft skills that go along with that career, and really focuses on workplace competencies for these students,” MacLean said from Vancouver Island campus.

“They get a sneak peek and to test drive a technology industry career before they even graduate from high school.”

HighTechU has two separate programs — the Computer Science Skills Academy, a six-week program that teaches coding and practical skills, and a summer industry internship program to give those students an eight-week, paid experience with a local technology company in Victoria.

MacLean said students enrolled in HighTechU are taught “soft skills” such as project management and personal communication to help them better understand the breadth of roles in the tech sector.

Stege said there appears to be a perception of what working in the tech sector is like, which she says is not necessarily in line with reality.

“It’s never been right and might still not be right. A program like ours will hopefully help to correct that,” she said.

MacLean said their mission is to impart to students how critical personal development is to a successful career in technology and that it’s as important as mastering the latest code language.

“It’s about how to be someone who’s not just building something, but someone who’s developing something and truly bringing it from start to finish,” said MacLean.

MacLean said HighTechU is a grassroots initiative that de-emphasizes students’ socio-economic backgrounds while it looks to narrow the diversity gap in the technology sector. They do this by focusing on groups that are underrepresented in the industry, such as women, Indigenous youth and people of colour.

“We have six core competencies we were looking for in students,” he said.

Those values of respect, resilience, teamwork, creativity, curiosity and innovation were specifically asked for by the industry partners who worked with MacLean and Stege through each step of their students’ application process, he noted.

MacLean said when they pitched the project initially it started out being a coding-primary program, until conversations with several industry partners revealed a different need.

They told MacLean they did not care as much about the technical skills as having balanced, flexible students.

“They said ‘we’re looking for you to find those students that are self-motivated, passionate,’” said MacLean, “their ‘big words’ were curious and passionate about technology, willing to learn and do the work and put in the time to be able to adapt to the changing situations (of the industry).”

MacLean likened their approach to the old truism of the fisherman.

“If you teach one programming language, that’s great for the year that language is really popular. But then when the new programming language comes out, those students need to be able to learn on their own.”

MacLean said they worked closely with three school districts and several private schools in the Greater Victoria area to develop curriculum for the program.

“A lot of the students that come through have done the computer science programs and are exceptional students before they come to us,” he said.

One of those students from an earlier pilot, Bridget Weston, finished high school at Victoria High School in June and is already working as an intern at a startup called Sendwithus. Weston will be attending UVic’s software engineering program when classes resume.

MacLean added that the demand from industry partners is so high that almost every teacher in the area would need additional training to continue educating in the field.

“Schools think about it one way and we’re able to provide additional challenges that aren’t always possible in school,” said Stege.

The program is delivered at no cost to the students beyond nominal registration fees and MacLean said the next group of students will be welcomed to HighTechU’s Academy program in February 2019.

Spencer Harwood, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

B.C. technology education program aims to shrink industry’s diversity gaps

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