The new program differs from other computer science courses by striking a balance between the practical and theoretical. This is achieved through combining specific work-integrated learning techniques with a university degree.
The practical aspects of the program embeds students directly into development teams at Shopify. This is through a paid internship opportunity that culminates with a the award of Honors Bachelor of Computer Science degree. For successful applicants, Shopify will fund the students’ tuition for the full four-year program.
There are four key success measures that students will accomplish on graduating. These are:
Development Skills
Under his heading students will learn programming languages, tools, methodologies, testing, debugging, databases, performance tuning, system architecture, and navigating large codebases.
Technology Breadth
The scope of the different technologies taught include web, mobile, cloud, data, AI/ML, fraud detection, security, financial transactions, scalability, HA, operations, front-end, animations, and incident management
Feedback Loops
By this, the pastoral aspects offered to students include mentorship, self-assessments, reflection, self-awareness, evaluations
Personal Growth
The program also sets out to build future technologists by developing key skills like teamwork, giving and receiving feedback, time management, customer thinking and communication skills that might not be attained through a conventional computer science program.
Commenting to Digital Journal on the new partnership with York University, Jean-Michel Lemieux, SVP of Engineering at Shopify said: “We’re excited to announce the expansion of our Dev Degree program to York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering. 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.”
The first cohort includes eight York Lassonde Computer Science students who will divide their time equally between Shopify’s downtown offices and their coursework at Lassonde. After enrollment, each student is paired with two mentors, a technical mentor and a Life@Shopify mentor, who is a trusted guide to support the student’s well-being.
Applications for the program open in January 2019.
