The World Needs to Curb Shortages in Skilled Talent
30/04/2008 by Bryan Palmer
Are you are a sales representative, an engineer, a technician or a manual trader? If so, the world desperately needs you as shortages of global talent, particularly in these sectors, soars.
Certain factors such as aging populations, globalisation, poor educational services, as well as recruitment from abroad have resulted in a significant lack of skilled talent. This lack of skills has resulted in massive global unemployment figures, reaching as much as 1.5 billion, and those with the required skills are migrating abroad due to better opportunities.
According to this year's Talent Shortage Survey by Manpower Inc, 31% of all employers around the world have trouble filling some positions because of an obvious lack of talent.
www.globalvisas.com, an international visa and immigration authority help those employers who find the right person abroad to obtain visas for their prospective employees. As Liam Clifford, director of this service provider says, "sometimes the best person for a job is not a citizen of a particular country; we take the stress out of legally obtaining permits for this talent."
The report has emphasised the need for skilled migrants particularly in countries such as Australia, Romania and Japan.
However "It's a catch 22 situation", adds Clifford, while highlighting the fact that as skilled talent leaves a country gaps are left back home. It is for this reason that some countries are actively trying to lure back expatriates through the prospect of financial opportunities.
Countries need to maintain and renew skills. Statistics such as an average person changes jobs at least seven times in their working career does not bode well.
In order to retain talent, it is clear that educational and vocational training is essential but in order to attract overseas talent governments are being encouraged to make immigration rules more lenient and develop programmes to help businesses recruit overseas workers.
A country like Norway is actively looking at attracting butchers from Eastern Europe and even Brazil in order to fill a shortage.
The top most difficult job to fill worldwide, according to the survey, is a skilled manual trader such as a carpenter, welder and plumber, with jobs like drivers being essential in countries like Hong Kong, France and Ireland.
The world needs certain skills and the only way to fill the gaps is through migration or governments must place more emphasis on career education and development.
USA
UK
Australia
Canada
South Africa
New Zealand
Ireland
India
China
Philippines