Latin America could generate 770,000 jobs in technology in the next decade, according to a survey developed by Gartner for Cisco.

The gap between the increasing number of jobs in the technological industry and the professionals trained to develop them is becoming a larger issue of concern in the world.

It is estimated that by 2019, 450,000 jobs will be left vacant, warned the telecommunications company, Cisco.

“We detect a serious problem: even though there are plenty of opportunities, the number of people who own the proper digital skills does not suffice”, explained Laura Quintana, vice-president of Corporate Affairs of the company during Cisco Live!, the technological event developed in Cancun (Mexico).

The industry is attending a labour “boom” mostly driven by the rise of data generated by the elevated number of devices connected, which, according to Cisco’s estimations, will reach the 50,000 million by 2025.

This situation has led technology firms to increase their payroll and has put them in a difficult position as they cannot find people properly trained to do the job, posing a challenge as it is expected that the situation will continue and become more and more serious, with the creation of jobs that have not even been created yet.

“Going into the digital economy demands training. This can be achieved through investment in incubators, accelerators and innovation centers”, she stated.

Quintana described this issue as “one of the four fundamental pillars” to contribute with the digitalization of countries and as a problem that “must be solved” with public-private initiatives, as both, business and schools, cannot do it on their own.

“A workforce that supports the entire industry must be built. Sometimes you think you do not even need to think about this, but it has become a problem. Without human capital, it will not be possible to lever technology”, she said.

By providing an overview of the gap, which mostly affects Europe and Asia, Quintana pointed out the Latin American case, a region that, according to the firm “generates the largest opportunity in the world” to provide technological professionals to companies, considering the quality of its professionals.

Quoting a survey developed by Gartner and requested by Cisco, the executive also mentioned the impact that “this opportunity” may have on the region, in terms of “employment creation and the growth of the economy”, as Latin America could host up to 770,000 jobs in technology in the next 10 years.

Figures that can reduce, “at least in certain levels” data that states that 25 million people are unemployed in Latin America, most of them young people.

The executive pointed out the case of the Cisco Networking Academy. The education line of the company has been working for 25 years and has already trained almost eight million people, out of whom 1.6 million have been from Latin America, the region with the largest participation share in the process.

In the context of this initiative, Quintana has seen how topics such as the development of applications, business analytics, handling devices, digital security and privacy, and networks are the most requested skills in the labour market.

“You cannot being to imagine the opportunity, but also the complexity we face. We must always keep on learning, as we know that with this fourth industrial revolution things are changing really fast”, she highlighted.

The executive pointed out the cases of Peru, Mexico, Brazil and Chile in terms of participation in the Cisco academies, which offer free programs in 20 languages on networks, security, IoT, programming and Linux, and basic concepts of technology.

“There are not countries that simply do not want to participate in this, or that do not see the importance of investing in digital education. External factors, such as the lack of financing or the quality of education, must be overcome”, she stated.

“The opportunity is at reach, we must seize it to close this gap”, she concluded.