- 10 years ago two companies hired people with multilingual skills, today they are 14
- Portuguese, German and Mandarin, among others, are becoming stronger to provide services
Mastering English is not enough to get a job. Service Companies in the country are increasingly looking for professionals with different language skills.
Ten years ago, only Western Union and Sykes hired multilingual staff to provide services. Currently there are 14.
“The biggest challenge is to find the academic preparation combined with language proficiency,” said Ericka Mora, human resources manager for DHL.
According to the CINDE, the 14 companies located in Costa Rica provide from services to financial and technical support in seven languages.
Companies like Intel, Sykes, Concentrix, Baxter and British American Tobacco SS Americas offer technical and financial support in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian and Mandarin.
Even the multinational DHL announced that, shortly, will offer financial services in Czech, Dutch, Swedish and Danish.
CINDE statistics indicate that 100% of service operations, 80% are in English, Spanish 8%, 7% in Portugal and the remaining 5% in other languages.
In line with the increased demand for multilingual personnel, Universities report a 235% growth in the number of people studying other languages besides English.
The Alliance Française also recorded a 20% increase in the number of new students.
Executives of seven companies surveyed said that to stay ahead, the country needs to keep up with supply of people. They recommended not only graduating more professional in finance or engineering, but also encouraging them to be multilingual.
“Costa Rica has a very good level of training in general, however, the labor market demand has increased considerably in recent years,” said Arturo Barboza, director of public relations for Sykes.
Of the 2,800 employees working at its headquarters in Heredia and Moravia, 90% (2520) does in English-Spanish and the remaining 10% (280) does in German, French, Italian and Portuguese.
Another example: Intel has a global service center in Heredia where 45 people offer marketing assistance in Spanish, English and Portuguese.
“For us, the main challenge is to maintain the high standards of productivity, education and availability of languages to ensure that the model is sustainable over time,” said Rudy Sanchez, manager of British American Tobacco SS.
British American Tobacco, Hall employs 90 people for financial support: 70% Spanish, 20% English and the remaining 10% French-speaking markets.
CINDE has recorded 95 service companies here, which generate little more than 28,500 jobs.
Source: La Nacion