The mission of professionals: develop more technological skills

Digital transformation has multiplied opportunities, but it entails challenges for companies and their employees, including constant and streamlined updating and the creation of new skills.

Digital transformation has changed how we live, study, communicate, shop and work. The public health epidemic accelerated these processes and changed in a few months what would have taken years in other circumstances. The world of work has been no stranger to these changes: as the world struggles to reduce unemployment, the World Economic Forum estimates that the global labor market can absorb an estimated 150 million new tech jobs over the next five years, and that by 2030 , 77% of jobs will require digital skills.

This new reality requires a paradigm shift for all players: companies looking for talent are having a hard time finding it. It is estimated that only 33% of the demand for technology talent is finding the right staff and companies are changing the way they hire: they have the option of looking for it in the global market (remote job offers have multiplied by 7 on the LinkedIn platform), or decide to hire talent from time to time, to support specific projects.

For job seekers, this growing demand for digital skills requires lifelong learning to stay competitive, but also a great opportunity to reinvent yourself and find new quality jobs. For governments, the challenge is how to match their educational offer with the needs for technological skills and integrate them into their curricula, from basic to higher education. Finally, it is up to the companies themselves to develop training capabilities to ensure that their employees develop the new skills that their operations require in an increasingly digital economy.

The role of private companies can be decisive in closing these gaps. To face these challenges, Microsoft decided to act on three fronts: supporting job seekers, allying with those who train talent, and offering its own collaborators the resources to May your learning and growth be constant.

The Mission of Professionals: Develop More technological skills

For job seekers, Microsoft has made its learning platforms Microsoft Learn, LinkedIn Learning, and GitHub Lab available to the public. All three platforms offer free training in the skills most required by the market -such as programming languages, web development , project management, to advanced technologies such as Big Data or Artificial Intelligence-, or in soft skills. Technical courses can culminate in an industry-recognized certification. More than 70,000 Central Americans and 62,731 Costa Ricans have been able to take advantage of these learning routes, and in the world more than 30 million have already benefited from this initiative.

On the educational and government front, to match labor supply and demand and help fight unemployment, Microsoft has partnered with governments, schools, and universities to develop joint training programs in computer skills. higher demand in the market. In Costa Rica, some examples illustrate this initiative: from the training of teachers from the Ministry of Education in technology for hybrid education, to the recent alliance with the INA for joint training and certification in state-of-the-art technologies, which seeks to generate talent necessary to ensure the transformation and competitiveness of Costa Rica. The joint Diploma in Digital Transformation that Microsoft and Universidad Latina have created is in the same direction, which seeks to prepare professionals so that they can take advantage of the opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Finally, to serve its own updating and retraining needs, Microsoft not only offers, but requires a constant learning mindset from its employees. Employees use the same Microsoft Learn platform that is open to the public and there they must complete monthly training and certification programs that have been designed according to their roles, ranging from ethics, security and privacy to advanced training in computer science in the cloud or artificial intelligence. These ongoing trainings allow employees to have constant growth and optimal career development, and ensure that they keep up with the ever-changing world of technology and innovation. After all, setting a good example must begin at home.

Tags: Costa Rica, INA, Microsoft Learn, Ministry of Education, Digital Transformation