The general manager of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology (Cuti), Andrea Mendaro, told Don't Touch Anything that although "the purest definition of ICT is the sum of software and hardware, instead of defining what ICT is, the question is what ICT is not".
In addition to the opportunities offered by such a varied sector, there is a recent search for professionals in other areas, always backed up by the lack of unemployment and the lack of personnel as the main obstacle for not generating new business projects.
"One of our newest needs is to bring soft skills into the industry. We can't think of an application that works without a communications-savvy approach. The spectrum of people working in the sector is expanding and tends to keep growing," said Aníbal Gonda, Cuti's vice president of Human Capital.
Among the Uruguayan companies in the sector there are different proposals, but as they are organizations that design and develop from the beginning and continue their work until they reach the final consumer, they also include workers from social sciences, economics and accounting disciplines.
Zero (or negative) unemployment
Mendaro told an anecdote which explains the inexistence of unemployment: "When we go to the educational centers and tell the young people what is done in this sector, some kids tell us that if all the third year high school students learn that the ICT industry has no unemployment, then there will be unemployment. But we explain to them that this is not so, that there are always jobs because this has no borders. Companies work for the world.
The concept of negative unemployment refers to the fact that there are fewer people than there are companies to employ and if new human resources were to emerge, there would still be jobs to fill that supply and keep unemployment at zero.
What you can study
CUTI's 2017 Academic Training in ICT report surveyed the offerings of Universidad de la República (UdelaR), Universidad ORT, Universidad Católica (UCU), Universidad de Montevideo (UM), Universidad de la Empresa (UDE), Universidad del Trabajo del Uruguay (UTU) and Universidad Tecnológica (UTEC).
However, Mendaro pointed out that "there is another educational offer outside of what is authorized by the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) that allows a first approximation, to know if I like it or not, if it is for me. Then you can opt for higher education.
The technical education options are especially varied for students from the interior of the country, where UTEC and ORT stand out. "UTEC not only aligns technology with what companies are looking for to work, but during the course of the career there are visits to companies and talks for students to know what their future employers are looking for," said Mendaro.
In undergraduate university careers, "the university education offer is basically in Montevideo and that limits access to young people from the interior. Technical careers are better distributed".
"It's never too late"
In addition to the variety of options and the sector's need to hire more people, the ICT industry does not exclude those who did not choose to train immediately after secondary education. In fact, technical careers that are often associated with immediate exit from high school have a higher average age than imagined.
For her part, the Cuti's manager also explained that academic training is not always exempt from work experience, since it is a field in which you learn a lot by working.
"Because there is so much demand for labor, many people postpone the reception or stop studying. The academy sees it as a problem, we see it as something natural, also because the person learns a lot in practice, improves a lot by doing," said Mendaro.
Source: 180
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