Skilled labor is necessary for the economic and social development of Brazil

* By Jamile Sabatini Marques

We are living in a polarized moment when it comes to jobs in Brazil and in the world: while companies in the technological sector lack qualified labor, there are a large number of people looking for jobs - 12.3 million in Brazil alone, according to the latest survey by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). And, as a consequence, we see trained people, who could be encompassed by the sector, and today they are taking risks as entrepreneurs due to the need to provide services through digital platforms as a means of support.

At the same time that thousands of vacancies in the technological sector in Brazil are not being filled due to lack of qualifications, companies that are unable to complete their staff are losing competitiveness, as they face difficulties to close new projects and contracts due to lack of technical staff. . The result, of course, is clear: Brazil stops generating economic development based on knowledge and loses competitiveness to other countries

In these new times that we are facing a global pandemic and with the acceleration of the digital transformation that came with it, the country will gain space in online training to make this gap between the supply of jobs and the number of unemployed decrease.

An alternative that would reduce the existing gap for companies to attract professionals trained in other areas and train them according to their needs is the tax benefit. There is now an immense and diverse list of careers that technology companies point to as the scarcest: Data Scientist; Python programmer; Cybersecurity Analyst; Cloud Infrastructure Architect; Solutions architect; Artificial Intelligence and Cognition Scientist; Quantum Scientist; and Application Architect, the latter being pointed out as a “whitefly” by some entrepreneurs, that is, that professional rare in the market and very difficult to be found.

Another point of attention that many companies end up neglecting due to lack of knowledge is the way in which they seek such professionals. Many choose robots that pre-select the huge volume of resumes received to fill a specific vacancy. However, if the candidate is not attentive to the job description, he can leave aside the necessary keywords for the robot to consider him in the selection process or for the next selection step. It is important that, behind these robots, there are recruitment professionals open and encouraged to make hires that need specific training and qualifications.

It is too early to know the impact that COVID-19 will leave, but it is undeniable that digital transformation has been accelerated in a few years. Every day we will have new challenges and, with them, opportunities for new technologies to be inserted in a new way of working and quality of life.

Public policies for the strengthening of the technology and digital sectors are one of the main paths for the economic recovery of Brazil and, therefore, it is necessary to use federations and educational institutions and institutes in the training of professionals for this new world. These will be the main axes on which the demand for employment will turn in the coming years.

* Jamile Sabatini Marques is director of innovation and promotion at ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies