Faced with the inevitable advance of technology in everyday life, industry leaders say that "everything is there to keep growing". But there is a worrying issue: the lack of qualified personnel. Faced with this situation, public and private organizations are coordinating efforts to extend training throughout the country. One of their objectives: to demystify the activity.
A mission led by the Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining, Carolina Cosse, and representatives of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (Cuti) are currently carrying out a full agenda of meetings in China. The objective of the delegation is to increase the business flow of the Uruguayan industry with the Asian power. Under this framework, one of the main activities being developed is called "Commercial and investment opportunities in ICT in Uruguay", a seminar that began this Thursday and will end on Monday 5.
Referents of this sector observe with good eyes the possibility of "orientalizing" sales, in order to generate some leveling with the United States, which is currently the main buyer. But if a lot of business were to be done in China, Uruguayan companies would not be able to cope with them. The main obstacle is the lack of qualified personnel to take on new projects. "We have all the conditions for first level companies to settle in our country, but there is a lack of technicians. Today local companies can't take on many projects because they don't have enough people to work. So we need a significant injection of new people, people who are trained," explained Aníbal Gonda, representative of the company Genexus and vice president of Human Resources of the Cuti.
The educational system, with the sum of public and private offerings, does not meet the demand. Gonda said that during the last three years there was an annual enrollment of 1,200 young people "in all university careers related to information technologies, of which less than 400 were received. The graduates of these careers "do not enter directly into the industry, but are distributed among commerce, finance and public administration, because software is everywhere, and all activities require personnel with the ability to develop". "So it becomes quite difficult to grow if we can't attract young people to join the industry," he added.
Fabiana Hernández, ejecutiva del programa People Talent de la Cuti, recordó que la Universidad Tecnológica (Utec) inició los cursos de TIC en 2016 en Durazno, lo que representa el inicio para combatir “la macrocefalia” que también ganó espacios en este terreno. Los empresarios del sector no se han quedado quietos ante esta situación. Por el contrario, junto a diferentes organismos públicos y privados, intentan incentivar a los jóvenes para que se inserten en el “ecosistema”, indicó Hernández.
The support for the development of new careers in the interior of the country promoted by Utec, the Ceibal Plan programs to provide basic technical knowledge to young people who did not finish high school, or the signing of agreements with the National Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (Inefop) to train people in unemployment insurance, are some examples of "public-private articulation" in this field of work.
A young sector
Uruguayan software companies employ more than 12,000 workers. According to a report prepared by Cuti, 10% are under 25 years old, 44% are between 25 and 34 years old, 37% are between 35 and 49 years old, and 9% are over 50 years old.
Prejudices
From the heart of the industries we try to dispel some myths that exist about those who choose these vocations. "There is a false preconception that to participate in this industry you practically have to be a NASA engineer, and that's not the case," Gonda said. "You need people who have very strong theoretical foundations, no doubt, but you also need people who have the ability to communicate or understand the aesthetics of the products. There are a lot of new roles that have been appearing with the evolution and invasion of technology, so today you don't just need that nerd prototype that people have in their head, but there is room for all kinds of people." In this sense, Gonda explained that the role of "evangelist" that Genexus plays in Genexus lies in "getting together with common people and educational institutions to tell what is happening in the world at a technological level and what companies are doing to keep up".
"There is an imaginary that says that this sector is only for brainiacs and that it is all very masculine," said Hernandez, adding that Cuti performs "affirmative actions to equalize the level of participation of women within the sector, in which the ratio between men and women is 7 to 3. We seek that companies open the doors to girls to see what it means to work in the sector. We must work so that women are included, because the industry needs different views to improve people's lives.
The members of Cuti highlight that it is necessary to have heterogeneous profiles when designing an application. "Software is developed for the health area, for example, and in those teams there are people who studied medicine. What does medicine have to do with computer science? Everything has to do with it. The same thing happens with programs for rural activities, for which people with knowledge of agronomy or veterinary science are needed, because otherwise the programs would not work well. You need a multiplicity of profiles to provide the different solutions," Gonda concluded.
Aníbal Gonda, Cuti
"Regarding the spillover effect on other sectors, there is no doubt that ICT industries do not generate a direct spillover effect, like construction or agriculture, which have a direct effect on other sectors. But they do have a direct effect on consumption, because those who participate in these sectors consume more and, in some way, they also generate jobs in other sectors. My thought is that all sectors, in the long run, end up spilling over to other places if there is real growth". "In Uruguay it is not clear how powerful the software industry is. Everyone knows that we are an agricultural and livestock country, that we have a tourism sector that has grown a lot, but last year the software industry only moved 500 million dollars less than the tourism industry. Unlike the other industries, the software industry has a growth potential far above the others".
Source: La Diaria
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