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Roughly 60 to 65 per cent of the graduating classes in software engineering leave for the U.S., according to the latest statistics. We often hear when hiring graduates at Wave that there is pressure from peers to work with large U.S. technology firms, pushed by a “California or bust” thought process. It’s become a status symbol to have a stint in Silicon Valley with a U.S. brand name on a resumé — and almost a sign of failure not to have one. We need to be less humble and a lot more active in promoting homegrown opportunities and celebrating our Canadian tech success stories.

There is also the opportunity to open up more seats in classrooms to create more engineers. It currently takes at least a 95-per-cent average to have an 85-per-cent chance of receiving an offer to study for a University of Waterloo software engineering degree. A 90-94-per-cent average gives you a mere 45-per-cent chance of acceptance. We need to expand undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programming to meet the growing demand. As a mother of two high school graduates, I stand firm in the opinion that many of those with 90-per-cent averages would make wonderful engineers capable of changing the world, one line of code at a time.

At the same time, despite increasing tuitions, Canadian taxpayers continue to generously subsidize universities and undergraduate studies without a commitment from students to stay in Canada and contribute back through future economic activity and taxes.

Canada will struggle to fill approximately 216,000 technology-related positions by 2021. Imagine if we could cut in half the graduates that leave by being much better at promoting the innovation and opportunities that are happening here. The Canadian tech industry may be booming now, but we need to commit to a new pace for future growth. Imagine if we could support a message that said: “Made in Canada, proudly Canadian, stayed in Canada.”

Ashira Gobrin is senior vice-president, People and Culture, Wave Financial Inc.