Artificial intelligence is putting the university system in check, which is not being able to train the thousands of candidates who are demanding companies at the necessary rhythm.
An Indesy study, an association aimed at promoting the use of AI in companies and SMEs, points out that up to 5,000 job offers related to AI and data science were uncovered in 2023 due to lack of qualified profiles.
Much demand, few candidates. According to data from the report ‘The future of talent in artificial intelligence and dates in Spain’ of Indesia, almost half of the job offers in AI run the risk of not being able to cover, placing this sector as the most affected by the shortage of talent, followed by cybersecurity and cloud.
The roles that record greater difficulty in covering their vacancies due to the lack of qualified personnel are Data Architect, Data Engineer, AI/ML Engineer, NLP Engineer and Computer Vision Engineer. Núria Ávalos, general director of Indesia, declared The country that “many degrees are now emerging, but until these people are in a position to assume positions as a data architect there are a few years.”
That will take its toll to the industry. The report estimates that, if the accelerator is not chopped in the formation of new talent in these matters, during 2025 34.5% more professional will be needed than in 2024. That is already a very complicated challenge to reach by the Deficit that was already recorded last year in professionals from these areas. According to data collected in a study of the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences of the Pontifical University Comillas, up to 75% of digital transformation projects fail due to the lack of training of employees or their qualification.
From Indesia they estimate that the education system is able to train about 6,000 new professionals a year, which is a very low pace taking into account the demand for demand of this sector in the next five years. Ávalos pointed out that “the positions that are now not covered are for more experienced profiles, people who can incorporate and make a digital transformation into a company.” That is, people with high qualification in a relatively recent area, but who has had a very fast evolution.
What do universities offer? On the other side of the shore, the universities responsible for training these profiles have not reacted with sufficient speed, and only one third of the 90 universities in Spain offer degrees or careers related to data engineering or the approach to the approach in Artificial intelligence.
Silvia Terrasa, director of the Computer School of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), assured El País that the process to establish a new university degree that responds to the needs of companies. “It is quite tedious. And then the first promotion does not come out until four years later,” justifying that a gap between the offer of jobs and candidates with adequate profiles.
The problem is not the students. One of the biggest problems that universities are facing is the personal lack of teaching to teach subjects in the field of data science and AI. It is a deficit of teachers who already crawl from the lower training cycles with the shortage of qualified personnel in STEM subjects. The problem is aggravated when such a recent specialization is necessary in which, in itself, there is already a shortage of profiles.
“We have no teachers to open more groups,” laments the head of the UPV computer school, pointing out that, if 120 seats are offered for their degrees, 300 students stay out due to lack of place and cannot expand them due to foul of teaching staff that imparts them.
A solution proposed by Indesia is to turn companies into training centers, in which students can do guided practices for their specialized personnel. “They are increasingly open for their employees to give classes. They know that it enriches and that it is a way of seeing profiles that interest you and bring them as fellows during the practices,” Ávalos slipped.
Importing talent from other branches. Despite the talent scarcity, three out of ten technology job offers are for positions related to data science and IA. That has made many graduates in computer engineering or telecommunications, end up occupying these positions since they have common areas of knowledge. Mathematics and Physical graduates are also recruited.
Núria Ávalos pointed out that, in many cases, it is the companies themselves that, given the urgency to cover vacancies, form the candidates internally. “They are recycled in a year, it is not necessary to make a master’s degree. They are usually within the companies themselves.”
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