A survey applied to more than 1,000 employers in Costa Rica concludes that the country is experiencing a talent shortage. The educational system is not generating the necessary human resources for the operation of the companies; 71% of those who responded indicate that they have identified difficulties in finding the personnel they are looking for, with certain required skills.
The survey was carried out by the global labor solutions company Manpower Group: “It means that 7 out of 10 employers have difficulties finding the workforce they need”, said the president of Manpower Group for Latin America, Mónica Flores Barragán.
According to the same study, the shortage of talent is not a problem only in Costa Rica. In the world, the average of companies that report this difficulty reaches 77%. In Taiwan, it rises to 90%; in Germany to 86%; and in Hong Kong to 85%.
On the contrary, the countries that report the lowest percentages are the Czech Republic with 66%, Panama with 65% and Colombia with 64%. In addition, the study says that it is the micro-enterprises (those with less than 10 employees) that find it more difficult (73% report having been in this situation).
In the case of small companies (from 10 to 49 employees) and medium-sized ones (from 50 to 249 employees), the percentages decrease to 65% and 69% respectively. The percentage rises again to 72% in the responses of large companies (more than 250 employees), reveals the same Manpower Group survey.
The most required skills
The report published recently on March 28th indicates that, globally, these are the 5 hard skills with the highest demand:
• IT and Data Intelligence
• Engineering
• Sales and Marketing
• Operations and Logistics
• Customer Service and Reception
Meanwhile, the top 5 soft skills with the highest demand are:
• Reliability and self-discipline
• Resilience and adaptability
• Critical thinking and analysis
• Creativity and originality
• Reasoning and problem solving
“As technological innovation becomes indispensable, human strengths stand out in the digital age”, added Mónica Flores.
Last year, 26,000 places could not be filled!
The former director of the Costa Rican Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (Cinde), Jorge Sequeira, pointed out that, if they had had the talent, last year they would have filled 26,000 additional positions to the 25,000 that did materialize. But the country was left in debt. “Although human talent is our main strength, it is also the greatest opportunity we have”,Sequeira commented in a recent interview with El Observador.
“If we want to train our young people so that they have opportunities, there is the formula. We must strengthen careers such as computing, all engineering, mathematics, science. We have to see how we improve the education system so that young people graduate with at least English, which is the universal language, and soft and digital skills”, he added.
The most recent report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also highlighted education as a challenge for Costa Rica, due to the lack of professionals that meet the profiles. One of the challenges encountered by the organization is the large percentage of people who do not have completed high school. The second challenge is the few people who graduate with skills in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The third problem is related to the fact that Costa Rica is one of the member countries of the OECD with the highest investment in education, but also one of the countries that obtains the worst scores in international student tests.
