Usually, I quote this kind of article in the found section of montrealtechwatch, but I think this article is an eye-opener on the dire case of (future shortage of) technology talent in Quebec.
The MontrealGazette freelancer Stephanie Whittaker tells the case of Vanier College:
This year, Vanier will graduate only about eight students from its three-year computer technology program.
“We’ve suffered from the Nortel effect for the past few years,” Popovitch said. “Young people have been hesitant about entering the IT sector and their parents are cautious about their children’s college program choices.”
..
“We used to get 300 applicants in the late 1990s for 100 places in the program.”
By contrast, she added, about 20 students now enroll, but by the end of the program, fewer than half graduate.
This echoed an earlier article on montrealtechwatch.



Comments
Gary Haran June 16, 2008
Maxime Poulin June 16, 2008
Fred Brunel June 16, 2008
Actually, we have the same problem in France. Most students wants to work for the government for the sake of job stability.
How depressing.
Montreal Tech Watch June 16, 2008
Students fleeing away from technology http://tinyurl.com/6gscj3
fsbrainstorm June 16, 2008
Retweeting @mtw: Students fleeing away from technology http://tinyurl.com/6gscj3. It doesn’t help that the teachers are also out of touch.
Taffey June 18, 2008
Also it would be very interesting so see numbers on the % of people who drop out of the industry. I know many personally who have left for greener pastures but I wonder how this compares to other industries.
Taf
Heri June 19, 2008
The situation in Québec is maybe more critical than in other places in the world; people might have believed too much in tech in the early decade, only to discover that it’s not a miracle industry.
As a personal note, you can’t also put everything “IT” in the same basket. Myself, I find corporate IT dull. There are much better things to do in technology. But my opinion might be skewed. We are in montrealtechwatch anyway