Tech mentor program seeks funding

Startup financing for program runs out in March of 2014

After two years of matching Ottawa students with mentors from the region’s technology industry, the matchmaker is looking for new funding.

TechU.me has been funded by the Federal Economic Development Agency for southern Ontario, but this startup funding runs out next March.

TechU.me is looking for $1.5 million from government and industry to keep going and expand, notably to Waterloo.

The group’s main achievement has been in bring mentors to 2,000 high school students in the past three semesters, said Steven Evraire, director of TechU.me.

The mentors come from companies that include Adobe, IBM and Bitheads and spend an hour or two each week in a high-school classroom. “Most of them are in app development or interface designers,” Evraire said. Partly they’re demonstrating the latest from their industry, and they also discuss what education and work experience it takes to work in the tech sector.

As well, they show the high school students how to help children in Grades 3 or 4.

A report this month by Let’s Talk Science says that approximately 70 per cent of Canada’s top jobs require science, technology, engineering and math education, but that nearly half of high school students drop these courses after Grade 10. The organization estimates this dropout rate costs Canada millions of dollars each year. The organization has also set up a TechU. me branch working with four schools in Waterloo.

Mentors donate their time, but the system needs money for things like school buses (when high school students travel to a Grade 3 class) and supply teachers to cover the science teacher who goes with them. hey also hope for some of the $1.5 million in the form of donations of hardware and software.

“We’ve been very happy with Fed Dev’s support. It’s a known (fact) that it was to come to a conclusion at the end of March of 2014 and that’s fine,” Evraire said.

“What we’re looking for is to expand with other partners as well.”

The organization hopes to “launch new programs to raise awareness of the career opportunities in technology with guidance counsellors, parents, and teachers.”

TechU.me is applying to the provincial government, a Microsoft youth foundation, other tech companies, school boards, universities and community colleges.