Access to Top Talent

Waterloo has the highest quality tech talent workforce in Canada

For three straight years, CBRE – the real estate giant – has highlighted Waterloo as the highest quality tech talent market in Canada. We also have extremely high 3+ year employment retention rates. Waterloo is the fastest-growing tech talent market in North America and, as part of the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor, is a global tech superpower that is home to 15,000+ tech companies and 200,000+ tech workers.

Waterloo isn’t just a tech hub, though. We have incredibly deep talent pools in research and development, advanced manufacturing, business and finance.

Home to Canada’s top technology university

The University of Waterloo has earned the title “Canada’s Most Innovative University” for 28 consecutive years. That isn’t a typo. Not only does the university train twice as many engineering students as Stanford and MIT combined, student quality is off the charts - 86% of incoming software engineering grads have an entry average over 95%. There’s a reason why The New York Times called it “one of the world’s top technology schools.”

We develop more high-quality tech talent than Austin, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Salt Lake City or Detroit.

Our community is also home to Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College. In total, Waterloo has 77,000 full-time students at three post-secondary institutions. The Toronto-Waterloo Corridor is home to a total of 17 universities and 425,000+ students.

Canada’s leader in entrepreneurial and work-ready talent

Waterloo is home to the most entrepreneurial talent you’ll find anywhere in North America. A full 18% of all Canadian tech founders received their training at the University of Waterloo, and 34% of local MBA graduates start a business following their studies, which eclipses the 7% average of America’s seven (7) elite business schools.

Our students are also work-ready. Every University of Waterloo engineering student, and most computer science students, graduate with two full years of on-the-job experience at global companies like Apple, Disney and IBM. Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga are also well-known for their experiential learning programs. Practical experience is so important in our community that our post-secondary institutions represent more than 33% of all university work terms in Canada each year.

This video explains what cooperative education is and the benefits it offers employers.

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