He software “It is a great combination of art and engineering,” Bill Gates once said. The world of tomorrow is built on the border between innovation and technological development. “Ten years ago, the most in-demand professional profile currently, which is a profile related to cybersecurity, was not known in the university environment, nor in companies, nor was it even stated. blockchain, immersive reality, or artificial intelligence, robotics, logistics, sustainable mobility, sustainable architecture, the digital twin…”, says Juan Carlos Arroyo, director of the Higher Polytechnic School of the Nebrija University. Francisco García Calvo, director of Education and Technology, defines the moment that the technology sector is experiencing as “exciting.” Chief Employability Officer at Microsoft Spain. All business sectors need to incorporate specialized talent with skills to carry out digitalization processes and deployment of technologies such as AI, which are called to radically transform our way of living and working. A golden opportunity to enhance employability and accelerate economic growth through the promotion of digital skills, clouded, however, by a striking paradox: while Spanish companies have multiplied by five the intensity of the use of generative AI among the third and fourth quarter of 2023 to occupy fourth position at the European level, the proportion of people with AI skills is lower than in other countries. “46% of Spanish companies cannot find the talent they need to digitalize, and a percentage close to 80% anticipate delays and cancellations in their projects due to not having people with the required skills,” says García Calvo.
New profiles
The demand for developers software will continue to increase in the future, motivated by the need to create new services and applications essential to backbone the knowledge society. “The main professional profiles are included in the Telefónica Foundation’s employment map. In the top 10 of them there are nine related to computer technologies, but in addition four of them are strictly professional profiles of development of software: developer software, full stackarchitect software and developer front end”recalls Manuel Enciso, director of the ETSI Informatics at the University of Malaga. “The demand for these professional profiles continues to be very high. The figure of DevOps (operations developer) and the expert in cloud computing It is increasingly necessary in practically all areas. Within these profiles we can find both those who have a specialization in the construction of technological infrastructure (backned), those specialized in interface and user experience design (frontend) or hybrid profiles, which combine both capabilities (full stack)”, says Cristina Villalonga, vice-rector of Digital Education and Technology at Nebrija University.
If a few years ago the developers of software They worked mainly in the IT sector, the panorama has changed. “Today, developers of software They are necessary in practically all productive sectors: factories, hospitals, large companies, etc. This trend will continue and, although a part of the development tasks can be automated using code generators based on generative AI, it will be necessary to supervise and adapt the solutions to the specific characteristics of each company,” concludes Agustín Yagüe, director of the ETSI of Computer Systems from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Machine learning (machine learning), as well as deep learning (deep learning) are being applied in multiple areas of the industry, in the opinion of this expert.
Despite this promising horizon, the educational system must face a reconversion process to adapt to the needs of the present and the future, as specialists warn. “In the ICT sector, the number of vacancies is estimated to be above 100,000, and, unfortunately, the training capacity of universities and training centers is much lower than that figure,” warns Yagüe.
More places are required
“Currently, places in Computer Science represent 10.5% of the (face-to-face) degree offering in Spanish public universities,” says Manuel Enciso, for whom a national plan to increase places is necessary, supported by extraordinary financing that affects the entire territory. Only in this way will it be possible to meet the demand for professionals that begins earlier and earlier. “Approximately 30% of paid internship offers for students in the final years of the Computer Science degrees at the Complutense University of Madrid remain unfilled because there is an excess of supply. Companies are increasingly “going to fish further up the river” with the intention of attracting students before finishing their studies,” says Pedro Antonio González Calero, professor in the Engineering Department of the Software and Artificial Intelligence from the UCM.
Video games, entertainment engine
With a total turnover of 2,339 million euros and a growth of 16.29% in 2023, the video game industry is consolidating, year after year, as an important economic engine of our country, becoming the third largest market in the EU (only behind Germany and France). A relevant sector that generates employment and attracts investments, with an important projection in international markets. In recent years, the demand for training in video game development has gone in parallel with a requirement for professionals, especially around Madrid and Barcelona, “where the most important video game development companies are concentrated, both nationally and, in the recent times, international ones, who have come to establish themselves in Spain because of the talent they find,” says Pedro Antonio González Calero, director of the master’s degree in Video Game Development at the UCM.
