CaixaBankDualiza and La Rioja Business Federation together with Fundación CEOE analyse changes in professional profiles leading up to 2030

CaixaBankDualizaand La Rioja’s Federation of Employers (FER) organized the conference "Changes in professional profiles and training needs in La Rioja. Perspective 2030", during which there were discussions on the evolution that some of the main sectors of the region’s economy will undergo and how this will affect workers currently in the market or joining in the coming years.

A market that, according to www.observatoriofp.com, will create more than 7,000 job opportunities this year in La Rioja alone, especially in the Trade and Industry sectors. Of these, almost 2,000 will be for vocational training graduates.

The event is named after a study carried out by CaixaBankDualiza in collaboration with the CEOE Foundation. It suggests a future marked by the evolution of current professions rather than the emergence of new ones; a future in which the production model will change the relationship between people and their jobs through the impact of digitalization on how work is organized, and by the arrival of hybrid profiles, with broader generic knowledge, more specialization, greater ability to manage specialized information and greater responsibility when it comes to making decisions.

This new model will replace the previous one, an industrial model based on qualification. However, it will take time for it to become institutionalized, we are just witnessing the beginning now and it will not be fully established until the medium term.

One of its main characteristics will be a tendency to intellectualize work, meaning that more and more competencies related to mental procedures for analysis, planning and decision-making will be required; in other words, what we refer to as soft skills.

The territorial director of CaixaBank in the Ebro región, Isabel Moreno, highlighted the role of companies, “companies committed to society by adopting a training role for those who will make up the future workforce”. She added that “at CaixaBank, we are convinced that a better trained society is a more cohesive society and a society with fewer inequalities.”

In turn, the president of the CEOE Foundation, Fátima Báñez, stated that “Spain’s agenda is the agenda of talent, and this study brings together the different parts of civil society to generate confidence in the future and opportunities in La Rioja, preparing us to make the best decisions. This is an alliance for the people that uses academic rigour to build the jobs of the future. A future marked by the evolution of current professions, the emergence of new professional profiles and the necessary commitment to training, which must incorporate key global trends such as digitalisation and sustainability in all production processes. This is a time of uncertainty and transformation, but also of responsibility and commitment. Today, once again, companies, through the CEOE Foundation, are taking a step forward for what is important: people and talent as the main strategic asset of the Spanish society. Spain’s progress is built with the help of companies.”

The president of the Business Federation of La Rioja (FER), Jaime García-Calzada, underlines the importance of this study, which reveals “the employment opportunities for Vocational Training learners and how important it is that it continues to respond to the demands of companies, to the reality of each sector and to the new professional profiles that will continue to emerge at the heart of the business activity”. The president of the FER believes that “people are the main asset of a company and professional talent must continue to contribute to the competitiveness of our region.”

In turn, the director of CaixaBankDualiza, Paula San Luis, stressed “the need to continue promoting knowledge in order to provide appropriate data to make decision-making easier, not only for those who have some responsibility in training schemes, but also for those who are choosing their educational path right now”.

Industries in La Rioja

The researcher Oriol Homs and the reseracher from CaixabankDualiza’s Knowledge and Innovation centre, Antonio Mondaca, have also addressed some of the trends that will mark the most relevant industries in La Rioja’s economy.

The industrial sector will be affected by the general ageing of the employed population (baby-boom generation), as well as by the need for a higher qualification of workers. The lack of intermediate-VET graduates will pose a problem for the replacement of the workforce.

Something similar will happen in the agri-food sector where, in spite of the clear progress towards a more highly qualified workforce, there is still an excessive proportion of workers who do not have any qualifications related to their professional duties. This contrasts sharply with the use of over-qualified labour in different jobs, which generates an imbalance between the different training levels entering the labour market.

Challenges ahead

In order to face the challenges ahead, the study raises a series of considerations that would contribute to training a greater number of VET learners and equipping them with the skills required by the labour market.

The most urgent, in fact, is to provide the market with a greater number of VET graduates, since it would be necessary to practically double the current number to reach European rates.

This would not require any major investment, all that would be needed would be to improve drop-out rates.

Furthermore, pending challenges such as the introduction of a digital method in all VET courses or requiring a minimum level of English as a qualification requirement should also be analysed.

The new scenario will also require training in soft skills and the introduction of sustainability in curricula.

Jorge García, manager at Ecotelia; Javier Virto, territorial director of HiberusTecnología in La Rioja and the HR director of IAC Group, Estrella Pintado, also took part in the conference, sharing their business experiences.