What do I need to train in order to be attractive in the job market? Where is the demand from employers heading? These are usually some of the doubts that new generations have, however, there are primary beacons that they must follow.
The view of the Costa Rican corporate sector is relevant for this issue when considering that it is made up of more than 180 companies, generates more than 82 thousand jobs and contributes around 8% of GDP.
Bilingualism
Bilingualism becomes a priority, since in a given year there can be a demand of thousands of professionals with English skills, while the supply of graduates is usually in the hundreds. But this should not be the only thing, since in this type of companies more and more positions related to Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) are required.
In these areas, 13,000 new jobs were created in 2018, and only between 2018 and 2022 the number is expected to increase to 35,000, according to CINDE. Hence the importance of the career to select, since, according to an IBM study, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will transform 100% of professions; specifically, it is said that in the coming years more than 120 million workers in the 12 main economies will have to retrain to work together with AI and automation.
What specific jobs can be mentioned?
The specialists mentioned among the most recurrent: systems engineers, software, cybersecurity, data scientists, programming, among others. All with good English. To make the country more attractive to the main companies worldwide, the entire ecosystem from human talent to training has areas for improvement.
In addition to the human talent, geographical location and economic stability that make the country attractive, the free zone regime is a catalyst for the economy, so it is important that its legal security be maintained and improved; we are in constant competition worldwide, and in many cases we lose the game, instead of thinking about obstacles, we must see how to be more competitive.
Education
In schools and public colleges, the push for education was broken a little, which we must resume so that bilingualism is real. It takes a long time to teach English from first to fifth grade, but young people do not come out bilingual; There is a gap where we have to see what happens with the programs, because we Costa Ricans have high intellectual capacity.
Companies are transforming towards the cloud, Artificial Intelligence, we must start to focus on technology careers, since repetitive jobs will be automated or simply done in another country. The new professional must be more flexible with technology, analytical and specialized.
It is relevant that our technical colleges no longer thinks of hundreds of people who graduate per year, but of thousands, and not only in the GAM; also think about how to increase knowledge in English and in parallel or once finished, in technology, so that Costa Rica’s proposal is of the highest added value.
