Youngsters don't want to be engineers

The unemployment figures and the latest trends in the job market are frightening to most, but not for one small group: professionals in the technical sector. And the label 'small group' should be stressed, because the number of engineers and qualified workers who are currently employed or looking for work is much smaller than the demand from companies.

In fact, the unemployment rate in the technical sector is around 5% in Catalonia. In other words, it is a case of "almost 0" unemployment, according to the Barcelona Activa company services manager, Jaume Baró, in a networking breakfast titled L'ocupació a través de les TIC, organised on Wednesday by CTecno. This is one of the many facts to be found in the organisation's latest barometer report, where it is clear that companies have increasingly more difficulty in finding suitable candidates for their vacant positions.

So, where's the problem? There is no single origin, but rather a number of them: a lack of specialised training, antiquated programmes, a new digital generation that is not attracted to technology... A remedy is needed and "to show young people that engineering and the technical sector is the future," says the director general of SII Concatel, Joan Carrillo. And especially among women, as only 0.9% of girls sign up for technical degrees at university, which in total only make up just under 6% of all applications, Baró points out.

Creation or disappearance of work?
"The world is becoming digital. If we look back six years, the trend was only among technical companies, but that is now spreading across the whole job market. By 2020, between 40 and 50% of jobs will have disappeared or changed." With this blunt statement, the director of people organisation and development at Schibsted Spain, Jaume Gurt, in his speech, far from wanting to be alarmist, wished to put all the cards on the table.

Yet, the statement that for each job that is created, two disappear, right now does not match the reality. "They are figures from 2012," says Gurt, "if we look now, it would be three," precisely due to the fact that the area of technology is increasingly advancing and generating more job opportunities while at the same time more tasks are becoming automated.

According to the Schibsted director, and referencing the latest Report on the State of the Job Market by Infojobs and Esade, this is what has turned the technology and programming sectors into the second-most important in terms of job vacancies. "And with the expectation that they will become the first," he added, because there is increasingly "more demand" while there is a "low level of professional competition."

On the hunt for talent
Yet those engineers who have established themselves in the job market are in a great positon. They are in a situation in which, as long as they are good, there are rich rewards, where the training is ongoing and where companies are beginning to offer programmes to recycle their employees; and where the salaries are growing by 5% to 6% a year, "when other workers are only getting rises of 0.2%," Gurt points out.

However, the fact that the perspectives are good does nothing to alleviate the problem of there not being enough professionals for the demand forecast in 2020. Not even juicy salaries are enough to attract many in generation Z, the upcoming generation that is at the same time the most technically savvy. "They are perhaps the most capable, but also the ones who least want to study or work in technical fields," laments Gurt when talking about the situation that has caused problems for companies in finding young talent, especially as this generation often rejects the stability of a large company because of the management strategy.

So, what can be done to attract them? There is no magic formula, but there are small solutions such as those Schibsted has applied: "In our office we have a cook who makes the dishes he wants, we offer decent wages, a lounge to relax in and great teachers, stars with whom young people want to work." In all it is a philosophy based on finding "the best for the longest time possible, people who give everything and who feel proud about those around them, who help them to grow," says Gurt, who also made it clear that keeping employees happy, listening to them and including them in projects has to be the strategy.

The most important thing of all, though, is that it does not require huge resources to attract talent and to dare to do things differently than before. He gives a well-known example: "The banks have infinite resources, but it is not clear whether their future is secure.  Kantox is a strong competitor, and perhaps it has less money, but it is not in a comfort zone like the banks. The new platforms look to people and grow with less."

Meanwhile, women also play an important part. Right now, it is clearly a masculine sector, but both companies and organisations are joining forces to attract female talent. One of the measures Gurt proposes is "breaking down the barriers to family life balance and the types of relationships.""Development teams tend to be very nerdy, in very closed environments, and women feel more comfortable in more open environments," he says, "also technology has to be used to open the door to telecommuting and fostering family life balance, because women transform their surroundings and the work environment; we have to listen to them."

More specialised training pills
Another black hole is to be found in the world of training. Francesc Font is the CEO of Nubelo, but also professor of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, which means he knows the strengths and weaknesses of the university system firsthand. "Many programnes are antiquated and there are many professionals who are working without having finished their degrees because companies take them on before," he says.

This is why he thinks that the technology sector is one in which experience is often given priority over studies. And that can clearly be seen in senior profiles, he says, where in companies some professionals "are more valued for what they know."

However, as technology advances with giant strides, training day-after-day is basic. On this, Gurt thinks companies are right to offer specialised training pills: "University systems offer large training packages, but people prefer small, specific training courses." Meanwhile, another option is any of the short-term programmes increasingly offered by private schools, which Font praises because they allow professionals from other spheres "to train for specific jobs." Something that shows that technology is reaching all sectors and is increasingly more necessary in order to have cross-sector professionals.