What is Lauriers place in innovative Kitchener Waterloo?

I have always wondered about Laurier’s place within the innovative Kitchener Waterloo district. Where does Laurier stand as a capitalist educator? Education is a business, and our reputation is predominately popularized by the Lazaridis business school, and we see that this faculty gets the most attention, financially and socially. 

As an institution, Laurier has a minimal focus towards sciences and technology, while our next-door neighbor UW pumps out the science and tech talent for the startup economy. Don’t get me wrong, I think the environment that we are in is incredibly diverse, well-paced, and interactive. However, there is no real push for me as a student to join the tech race after graduating with my Laurier Arts degree. For the BBA students, they are mainly being pumped back into corporate roles in finance and sales, predominately in Toronto.

We might focus on being more innovative and create new programs such as Social Entrepreneurship, but is that helping? Can Laurier add value to the thriving economy of innovation and startups? Is Laurier doing enough as a school to innovate and produce talent that can match the startup market? Is UW the only school which adds value and provides great talent for this region?


These are some of the things I'm wondering, and would love to understand your perspective on them. 

Comments

  1. Sara Domaratzki8 February 2018 at 11:42

    Shinjni,

    I really enjoyed your insights on our community and what our school has to offer. Its amazing how I never even thought of this, so thank you for shining some light on it. At first glance, it does not seem like Laurier can have much to contribute to the innovative KW tech hub area in relation to UW of course. I do believe that UW gradates would find more of a place here in KW in their post- undergraduate life, with this being said I would like to see Laurier begin to find its place so that their undergrads still feel welcome in the corporate KW world once we graduate.
    Great thoughts and ideas!

    Sara

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  2. Unknown8 February 2018 at 11:44

    Hi Shinjni! I really enjoyed your post. Just to expand upon this, I believe it may be beneficial to draw over some of the main/most popular programs at Wilfrid Laurier University Brantford over to the Waterloo campus due to the amount of tech start ups here. For example, one of WLU Brantford's programs is Game Design and Development. If we offered this program at the Waterloo campus as well, wouldn't that create a more seamless transition over to the KW region tech industry?

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    Replies
    1. Shinjni8 February 2018 at 15:13

      Hey Sarah, I completely agree! Also their Business Technology management program would be an asset to our campus. It's interesting I did not really think about the different campuses and maybe how Brantford students who have a tech background, do not get to immerse themselves in the environment we have, which is a sad loss.

      Delete
  3. Xavier Prosper12 February 2018 at 12:25

    From my personal observations i believe that Laurier contributes a good portion of the Sales and marketing talent for local tech companies. Looking at local companies like Vidyard and D2L there are a lot of Laurier grads in non technical roles.

    Secondly the Laurier is seeking to bring more talent to KW using through the Lazaridis institute program. This program offers a variety of training to bridge talent gaps in our tech sector. A notable example of this is their Tech Sales Apprenticeship program.

    Lazaridis Institute: https://www.wlu.ca/academics/faculties/lazaridis-school-of-business-and-economics/lazaridis-institute/index.html

    Tech sales apprenticeship program : https://www.communitech.ca/how-we-help/career-development/pipeline-tech-sales-apprenticeship/

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  4. Unknown19 February 2018 at 21:02

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Unknown19 February 2018 at 22:27

    Hey Shinjni,
    I certainly think Laurier holds the potential to add greater value to Waterloo’s thriving economy of innovation and startups. However, I would like to point out that Laurier does directly work with some of these organizations through cooperative education programs. In saying so, without fail I always believe there is room for improvement as such, I think Laurier could increase their involvement in these areas by working with these organizations through school clubs and/or adding more co-op opportunities for students in order to gain a more competitive edge in the Waterloo region.

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  6. Unknown21 February 2018 at 16:07

    This was an excellent article, and great start to your blog. I have been asking myself the very same questions while attending Wilfrid Laurier. Most of my friends all graduated from University with a degree in Commerce or Engineering, and their educational experiences were very different from mine. They were continuously told about all of the job opportunities they will be presented upon graduating, or how they will all have the qualifications to start their own venture. In comparison, there are few classes in my degree that actually talk about life after Laurier, and speaking just for myself, I have never been told in a CS course that I could start my own business with the knowledge being presented. That being said, this does not mean that there are no opportunities for Arts students at Laurier at all, they may just be harder to find.

    I enrolled in an entrepreneurial class last year and learned a lot about start up culture and how to start a business, starting with the bare bones of creating a business model.

    I would agree that Laurier sometimes lacks the start up buzz, and I would recommend the entrepreneurial class to anyone in Communications Studies, or any other program for that matter, to try it and gain the confidence of joining a start up, or creating your own path after graduation.

    ReplyDelete

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