Brazil’s ICT labor market: Facing skill shortage, companies invest in training

Several Brazilian companies have chosen to invest in employee training to deal with the lack of technically skilled job applicants. This strategy has also been used to reduce employee turnover, another serious concern for information and communications technology (ICT) companies.

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As RCR Wireless News reported in its series on the ICT labor market in Brazil (check out all pieces), there are more open positions than candidates in Brazil. In addition to the gap between the number of students graduating and the number of professionals the ICT market needs, the high cost of education is also an issue.

“The qualification courses in the IT industry are very expensive,”  said Antonio Neto, president of Sindpd, the union representing data processing and IT workers in the state of São Paulo. “Beyond graduation, professionals need to have certification and specialization courses.  In traditional schools, these courses cost about U.S.$15,000. Starting salaries, however, are low,  and workers cannot afford to pay for the expensive specialization courses. Many end up giving up and changing areas.”

Neto explained that the greatest shortage is for highly specialized professionals because the number of required skills, including graduation courses, certifications for specialization in some solutions and a high level of English.

“There is a shortage of skilled labor, and the best way for businesses to keep their professionals from moving to other companies—also quite a common phenomenon in the area today—is to invest in the specialization of their workers,” Neto said. The workers’ union is discussing an idea to have companies reimburse employees that are taking courses that meet company goals.

Some companies have already started doing just that.

At PromonLogicalis, the main issue in hiring new employees is the necessary specializations and certifications in technologies from company partners, such as Cisco and McAfee. “Often, it is more interesting for us to hire junior professionals with a good base [in technical training] and who have the certifications that are most widespread in the market, for example: CCNA, and supplement their training internally through the corporate education program,” said Tania Casa, director of human relations at PromonLogicalis.

Casa said the hardest task is to recruit skilled professionals in technologies that are not as commoditized. “The greatest difficulty lies in the areas of collaboration, such as IP telephony, video conferencing, telepresence, and unified communications, as well as access technologies, network management, information security and data centers,” she said.

Angelo Ribeiro, human resources manager at Arcon, said that the number of graduating professionals does not meet the demand to fill open positions. “In addition, the lack of work experience enhances the difficulty in some situations,” he said. “Investing in training internally and getting professionals ready at other sites are alternative ways to reduce this difficulty.”

Globalweb Corp is another company that relies on training to improve employees’ skills. “We invest in an intern training program. We constantly offer courses and certification programs to keep our employees up to date on our portfolio and IT solutions,” said Mariana Boner, Globalweb HR director.

Neto said that training initiatives as very important not only to have more hi-level and qualified workers but also to make the companies more attractive to professionals.

As for salaries, Neto noted that employees at the management level usually have good compensation programs with high salaries. However, this is not the case for entry level positions.