Windsor-Essex County, Ontario, Canada – Tuesday, February 18, 2020 – The WindsorEssex Economic Development Corporation (WE EDC) hosted 30 high school students from Leamington District Secondary School enrolled in the Greater Essex County District School Board’s “Specialist High Skills Major” (SHSM) Program (Transportation) and Tecumseh Vista Academy’s eSTEAM program (Entrepreneurship in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics).
These students were provided experiential learning through a demonstration within the Virtual Reality (VR) CAVE at WE EDC’s Institute for Border Logistics and Security, along with facilitated discussions, to better understand the auto industry’s shift to connected and autonomous vehicles and the impact on jobs of the future and the Windsor-Essex’s economy.
The auto sector plays an important role in the Windsor-Essex economy. In 1904, Canada’s automotive industry began in Windsor with the establishment of Ford Motor Company of Canada. Today, the Windsor-Essex Region continues to be home to the highest concentration of companies and employees linked to the automotive supply chain in Canada, and increasingly these jobs are technology jobs. In addition to the VR CAVE, WE EDC, is working hard to support economic prosperity for the Windsor-Essex Region now and into the future. And, one of the strategies is to develop a marketing campaign that communicates to the world that the Windsor-Essex Region is Canada’s “Automobility” Capital.
Windsor-Essex’s economy is dependent on us supporting our young people to choose to stay in our region by providing them access to good jobs or opportunities to start their own business that will help drive innovation and our future economic prosperity. We know that the auto industry – particularly one that is integrated with state-of-the-art technology will continue to play an important role in the Windsor-Essex Region. I am excited to be able to engage with our young people. I look forward to showcasing their unique perspectives and interpretations of the what the vehicle of the future looks like.” Stephen MacKenzie, President and CEO, WE EDC
To help kickstart WE EDC’s marketing campaign, WE EDC is seeking community input by launching a student contest to design the “vehicle of the future”. The contest is open to all high school students in the Windsor-Essex Region. The selected image will serve prominently in WE EDC’s marketing campaign that will be featured at the 2020 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan. In return, the winning student will receive a lucrative prize package, consisting of: $500 in gift certificates to the Devonshire Mall; free pizza for a year; and tickets to attend the North American International Auto Show. Gift certificates of $100 for the Devonshire Mall will be awarded to two randomly selected students. The deadline for the contest is April 17, 2020.
“The WindsorEssex Economic Development Corporation, the team at the Institute for Border Logistics and Security, WEtech Alliance, and Workforce WindsorEssex have been so open to collaborating with us to design fantastic experiential learning opportunities for our students. We feel strongly that giving students opportunities to explore career pathways in a dynamic and interactive way, out in industry and with community partners, has a big impact on student learning. Ministry of Education programs like SHSM and experiential learning give us a platform to do this. This contest is a great way to engage youth in thinking about this industry and how the car of the future and its automation will create changes in the way we live. ” Krysta Brosseau, Teacher Consultant – Specialist High Skills Major and Community Outreach, Greater Essex County District School Board
Learn more about the contest or to submit an entry:
