Press and Media

Sanaa Syed talks about her journey from hEr VOLUTION's STEMing UP program into the 2019 Dev Degree cohort at York University. Sanaa highlights her industry experience pitching companies through STEMing UP, her experience in computer science, the application process for Dev Degree, and more! Watch the video below for more details.

York University Magazine features Dev Degree in its Winter 2019 edition. The article provides three perspectives of the program - student, university, and industry.  Midway through his first year in the program, Madan agrees the learning curve is a steep one. Thanks to Lassonde’s professors and a team of technical instructors at Shopify, he’s experiencing first-hand how the theory he learns in his on-campus lessons applies to real-life software development projects. A morning lecture in Boolean algebra, for example, came to life that same afternoon when Madan’s technical instructor explained the logic behind Shopify’s coding framework. Madan describes it as “a two-way connection”: “The things I learn at Shopify help me progress at school, and the things I learn in...

Scott Stirrett, founder and CEO of Venture for Canada and Parm Gill, managing partner of the Gill Group and chair of Venture for Canada highlight Dev Degree in their Globe and Mail opinion piece discussing graduate outcomes: While there is clearly insufficient collaboration between PSIs and employers, innovative new models of higher education are emerging, such as Shopify’s Dev Degree partnerships with York University and Carleton University, where “students graduate with an honours degree in computer science in four years with 4500+ hours of work experience, plus paid tuition, vacation and a competitive salary.” Read the full article here

In a Financial Post feature, Dev Degree student Lulu Sheng discusses her experience in the program.  Sheng, who is part of the second Dev Degree cohort, saw the program as a new approach to learning. “I didn’t think I could develop my skills as much in a more traditional program. This approach has placed me on a learning path that ramps up my skills for the industry. Being able to integrate with a team in a work environment so early in my university career allows me to develop really amazing skills.” Read the full article here

In an interview with IT Business Canada, Shopify's CTO and founder of Dev Degree, Jean-Michel Lemieux, discusses the program's expansion to York University and the importance of fostering talent in Canada. “This all started because we have an insane talent gap and shortage in the tech industry in Canada,” Jean-Michel Lemieux, senior vice president of engineering at Shopify told ITBusiness.ca, “If Shopify is going to build itself as an anchor tenant in Canada, our biggest challenge right now is brains, not money, so we want to really invest in the brains we have in Canada.” Read the full article here

At Elevate Toronto, Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke and ISED Minister Navdeep Bains discuss the Digital Industries Table report about how to grow Canada's tech talent for the long term. The two discussed the Canadian ecosystem, the need to grow Canada's digital talent base, and closing the digital divide, noting that only 40% of rural Canada has access to high-speed internet. Dev Degree is one way Shopify is helping grow our ecosystem. Read more about the fireside here

The Ottawa Business Journal features Shopify's expansion of Dev Degree to York University. After three years piloting the degree program in Ottawa with Carleton University, Shopify is expanding its workplace learning concept to York University in Toronto. Dev Degree, as it’s called, offers students enrolled in a post-secondary institution’s computer science degree the chance to do roughly half of their studies on the job at Shopify’s offices. Shopify matches students with the e-commerce giant’s developer teams to align skills learned in the classroom with real-world expectations. Read the full article here

Betakit feature's Dev Degree's expansion to York University in 2018. “We’re excited to announce the expansion of our Dev Degree program to York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering,” said Jean-Michel Lemieux, SVP of engineering at Shopify. “Dev Degree layers personal development and accelerated software skills, industry mentorship and real-world practice on top of an accredited degree. We can’t wait to see what unique problems our first York University class will solve.” Read the full article here

The Ottawa Business Journal covers Dev Degree application deadlines and the program's future expansion, citing Tobi Lütke, Shopify CEO, and Adrianna Chang, Dev Degree students at Carleton University. Computer programming is not a science or an art in the traditional sense. It’s its own thing and deserves a custom approach to teaching and learning that isn’t rote implementation of prior education models - Tobi Lütke Read the full artcile here

Alastair Summerlee, interim president, and vice-chancellor at Carleton University penned an editorial in the Ottawa Citizen highlighting the university's work in innovation, data, and technology. This includes their work with Dev Degree, citing: At Carleton, we’re in the second year of a unique internship arrangement with Shopify that sees students split their time between campus and Shopify’s downtown headquarters throughout their four-year Bachelor of Computer Science program. This internship will give them a head start in their careers and help develop local talent who can join Ottawa’s growing tech sector, whether at Shopify, another employer or by starting their own businesses. Read the full article here