Czech Chamber of Commerce published the results of a project called The needs of employers in the area of human resources - Vocational education and competitiveness of enterprises prepared for the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Analysis of the current needs of employers in the Czech labor market showed that workers in technical fields, particularly engineering, are most demanded. Food industry, transport and textile industry are on the opposite side of the spectrum in terms of demand.
Graduates from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, telecommunications and computer technology majors are most demaned in all 14 Czech regions. Both large and small businesses require them. Czech system of retraining, however, does not include many of the most demanded technical fields.
60 percent of companies surveyed stated problems with obtaining qualified workers, again mainly for technical fields. Czech educational system is not producing enough professionals in technical fields and the competences of graduates often do not meet the needs of employers.
Employers prefer competences such as the art of dealing with people, practical skills and knowledge, presentation skills, independence and loyalty to the employer. In all fields, the importance of knowledge of foreign languages and computer technology, adaptability and flexibility grows quickly.
The analysis concludes that it is necessary to give more support to technical fields at schools and motivate students to study them, improve teaching of technical subjects and practical training in cooperation with companies. Greater emphasis should be placed on training and retraining, again in cooperation with companies.
-kk-