Going Virtual With This Year's Tech Week
By: James Ellard
March 17th, 2021
Another Tech Week has come and gone, and this year has been an online success! Like traditional Tech Week style, the event overcame adversity because of Covid-19 and students attending class from home but came out stronger for it. If you are new to Tech Week, this week-long event brings tech professionals into the classrooms of young students to spread the word that tech jobs are a great career path. Teachers and students at both the Lakehead Public School board and the Catholic School Board participated and were able to book some exciting tech speakers to virtually come to visit their classrooms and discuss their careers.
With the evolution of technology like computers and smart devices we have seen been an explosion of jobs in the tech industry over the last 25 years. This is why a career in tech is a very viable and financially lucrative option for a career choice. Usually, a career in Tech isn’t always championed like other careers like nurses and engineers so we want to highlight some of the awesome jobs involving tech. The idea behind Tech Week is to build excitement around tech and let the Thunder Bay youth know that tech is a great option for them when they get older.
This year we had a wide array of tech speakers ranging from a GIS (Geographic Information System) pro to App Developer. With this year’s even going virtual we had the unique opportunity to invite speakers from outside of Thunder Bay region to participate. One of these speakers was Andy Hay, a Social Media cooking star, who is always sharing great recipes on his social channels: Andy’s East Coast Kitchen. Unbeknownst to me, Andy was a runner-up in MasterChef Canada on CTV in 2018 and is currently participating in season 7 of MasterChef Canada.
A big thank you goes out to all the speakers for being a part of Tech Week and being an inspiration to over 60 classrooms this year. Another big thank you goes out to the teachers, students and both school boards for letting the Tech Week speakers come into your classroom. We look forward to next year’s Tech Week and hope to return back to the classrooms.
If you are interested in being a Tech Speaker in the future please let James know by emailing him - james@nwoinnovation.ca.