Even though the two markets are different, the shortage of people with foreign language skills will become more visible in the next three to four years, considering more and more multinationals are gaining ground on the labor market in Romania.
“Technically speaking, the market considers IT positions as highly skilled and does not appreciate multi-lingual skills as much, but things are changing fast. There is little availability for both, even for foreign language speakers which are harder and harder to find compared with 2013-2014,” said Raluca Parvu, business manager of management and human resources consulting company BPI Group.
“We can be talking an oversaturation of the market. At this rate, HR teams are under a great deal of pressure to find hundreds of people a year, because companies take on service outsourcing projects without having the necessary personnel trained and available.”
Sorin Faur, HR coordinator of audit and consultancy firm BDO for Eastern Europe and Balkans, too, believes foreign language speakers will be higher and higher demand, considering the results of the high school graduation exam, the low appetite of young people for work and the migration of Romanians abroad.
“The need for foreign language speakers will increase over the next three to four years (…). Supply will probably not be able to keep up with demand for a number of reasons. For instance, the high school graduation exam continues to be a problem for many students.”
This year 68.1% of the high school students taking the graduation exams passed in the first try, 0.3% more than at the same time last year.
“The Millennials (those up to 29 years of age i.e.) and Generation Z (aged 16 to 18 i.e.) do not have the same appetite for work as the previous generations. Moreover, the best of them go to get an education abroad and hardly come back. Not right away at least.”
Foreign language speakers are in demand especially as employers require fluent speaking ability.
“Fluently speaking a foreign language is not an ability for everyone. Yet it is not just that. Most often this requirement comes with other requirements that have to do with the nature of a particular job and they are not easy to meet, either.”
Those in highest demand in the next three to four years will be those who speak two or three foreign languages, such as
English and German or English and another foreign language. They will remain in demand as they are now.
Asked about the languages in highest demand at the moment, Sorin Faur says English is the language in highest demand, because it has become mandatory for a job in most multinationals.
Besides English, German, French and Italian speakers are also in demand, because Romania is an EU member and Austria, Germany, France and Italy are the most powerful European economies and at the top of the investor list in Romania, Sorin Faur added.
Other languages are Dutch and Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Norwegian, which are considered difficult and therefore harder to learn, which is why few people speak them in Romania.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)