Shortage of technological talent in Portugal: what are the challenges?
It is important to have a collaboration between the government, the companies and the educational institutions. Therefore, investments should be made in training professionals and in updating educational programs.
In recent years, humanity has witnessed a technological transformation like never before. This transformation caused the way we live, work and communicate to change significantly. Currently, these changes are no less visible, namely due to the increasing integration of artificial intelligence in organizations. On the other hand, it has been an increasing shortage of talent in the technological area. So, what are the challenges arising from this lack of talents?
What is known is that, during this period, the technology sector has been in constant growth and, therefore, the need for qualified professionals has also increased, not only in Portugal, but all over Europe. However, finding talent has been a challenging task for many technology companies. According to the Talent Shortage Survey 2023, by ManpowerGroup, globally Portugal was considered the 4th country where is most difficult to hire. IT and Data were identified as the most sought functions by Portuguese companies.
One of the main challenges contributing to this talent shortage is the rapid obsolescence of knowledge, due to the speed of technological evolution, which makes it more difficult for professionals to keep up to date. In addition, there is still a certain discrepancy between the labor market and the curriculum programs, because things change so quickly that schools/universities may find it more challenging to adapt accordingly.
In order to overcome this difficulty, companies have chosen to implement upskilling or reskilling programs so that their workers can develop the necessary skills to respond to these technological changes that are increasing significantly and quicker than ever.
Another challenge that Portuguese companies face concerns globalization. Today, more than ever, talent is in constant motion: either through emigration to more financially attractive countries, or through remote work in Portugal for foreign companies that offer more competitive salaries. One of the strategies that companies have used to deal with this movement of talent has been, and continues to be, offering greater flexibility of working hours to their workers, but also giving them the possibility to work part-time and/or on a remote/hybrid mode.
Due to this ease of the talents being in constant motion, salary expectations, as a consequence, prove to be another challenge that companies face today. Data from the study “Scarcity of Talent in Portugal”, by Michael Page, corroborates exactly this, with 42% of recruiters stating that, when recruiting, salary expectations are really the main obstacle. In this sense, in addition to flexibility, it is important for the companies to be able to develop ways to attract, not only with the salary itself, but also with the emotional salary that has been increasingly valued.
In a highly competitive sector, it is important to have a collaboration between government, companies and educational institutions. It is therefore necessary to invest in the training of professionals, update educational programs and promote policies that encourage innovation. Only this way it will be possible to develop solutions and apply efficient measures to overcome the shortage of talent and start investing even more in attracting and retaining talent in Portugal.
