Canadian Coalition for Tomorrow's ICT Skills (CCICT)Is the BTM for you?
This program is for students who are inspired to use technology to change the world. There is huge and growing demand – and high paying jobs with great career prospects in every industry – for BTM graduates. BTM professionals will help to drive technology-enabled change within our organizations and accelerate innovation and prosperity across Canada’s 21st century economy.
Watch BTM graduate, Khaled, describe his career as a project manager at RBC.
Tomorrow’s leaders will be business technology managers!
You want to make a difference. You know that technology is at the heart of everything. You are inspired to make things happen in real life. This is what business technology managers do.
- Harness innovations like Facebook, Twitter, BlackBerries and iPhones to help organizations work smart, collaborate better, and redefine their products and services.
- Team up with professionals and technical experts to design electronic health systems, making patient care better, faster, and more effective.
- Work with hydro companies, appliance manufacturers, and consumers to help them bring “smart” power grids to life – reducing greenhouse gases and making a real difference on climate change.
- Be the sales, marketing and business leadership side of tech startups – like the app developers that are taking the mobile world by storm.
Business Technology Management (BTM) is a CCICT success story!
It is a new, professional undergraduate university program that CCICT corporate and academic members have designed to improve the quality and quantity of business professionals capable of implementing ICTs to achieve productivity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and competitive advantage. Typical roles of business technology managers including business analyst, project manager, change management, consultant, entrepreneur, and IT manager.
Canadian organizations employ well over 200,000 people with this profile. This is the fastest growing segment of ICT occupational growth, and the one that is experiencing the worst skills shortages in every region of Canada. On top of the labour shortage, employers are not satisfied with the quality of skills available in the marketplace for these strategically critical occupations. In 2009-10, employment for business technology management jobs experienced 30%+ growth according to Statistics Canada.
CCICT launched a consultation process to design the BTM, including employers and educators from across Canada, in February 2009. A working group designed a set of learning outcomes for the program, drawing heavily on relevant international standards. Each accredited university program is encouraged to carve its own path in curriculum, pedagogy and specialization while delivering the core learning outcomes. Relevant practical experience is being developed as a requirement for individual graduate designation as (for example) a Certified Business Technology Manager (CBTM). We are partnering with the Canadian Information Processing Society for program accreditation and graduate certification.
Currently, more than 10 universities across Canada offer undergraduate BTM degrees or certificates, with more on the way. They include:
- Acadia University (Halifax)
- Concordia University (Montreal)
- Laval University (Quebec City, starting 2012)
- Ryerson University (Toronto)
- Simon Fraser University (Vancouver)
- Université du Québec à Montreal (UQAM, Montreal)
- University of British Columbia (Vancouver)
- University of Waterloo & Wilfrid Laurier University (joint Computer Science & Business program, Waterloo)
- Wilfrid Laurier University (Brantford campus)
- York University
Each school has its own unique program, course structure and overall approach and excels in particular topic areas and electives, ranging from deep computer science to marketing and entrepreneurship.
To learn more, contact Gina van Dalen, BTM Project Manager at gina.van.dalen@ccict.ca, visit CareerMash.ca or download the BTM brochure.