Young Atlantic Canadians shouldn’t have to leave home to find jobs: IBM exec
HALIFAX — The thousands of young people graduating from Atlantic Canada’s colleges and universities every year shouldn’t have to look for work outside the region’s borders now that technology has made it so much easier for the world to come to them, says Dino Trevisani, president of IBM Canada.
While it’s true the region continues to lose young people to out-migration, IBM’s decision to create a series of entrepreneurial hubs with the help of provincial governments, colleges and universities has helped stem the tide of lost talent, Trevisani said in a speech Monday to a group of academics, business leaders and politicians gathered at the Halifax Central Library.
“You have 20,000 graduates coming out of colleges and universities every year, and that’s music to our ears when we hear about that kind of talent,” he said. “What better environment to work in than to look out at the bay and participate in the culture, the history and the beauty of this environment — not to mention the lobster. That’s what people are looking for. They’re looking for that lifestyle.”
Trevisani, who is originally from Hamilton, Ont., said IBM’s Client Innovation Centre in Halifax, which opened in 2013, serves as a good example of how the best talent doesn’t always gravitate to the big cities.