In the ICT job market, bilingualism is the best tool to export your talent.

Nowadays, two factors provide great opportunities for different professionals and different roles in the technology labor market. First, globalization has allowed the opening of economic borders, and second, the pandemic that provided an unprecedented number of professionals with the chance of working remotely. Thus, given the aforementioned reasons, bilingualism is of great relevance.

Currently, Latin America requires human talent that responds to the needs of the market; however, it is clear that in industries such as technology, the region lacks professionals such as software developers. This situation is no different in the United States, enabling the expansion and export of talent and knowledge through remote work.

However, one thing is undeniable: to work in a foreign technology company, it is necessary to be fluent in English, but let’s see how Colombia is fairing in this regard.

According to the EF English Proficiency Index – EPI report, conducted annually by EF Education First based on the official exams of more than 2.1 million people in 111 countries where English is not the official language.

In 2022 and based on this internationally endorsed scale, Colombia ranked 77th globally and 17th in Latin America. This is calculated through a range of scores, ranking as medium countries that obtain between 500 and 549 points, low those between 450 and 499 points, and very low those with less than 450 points.

Last year, even though nearly 152,000 jobs were created in the technology industry, English continues to be a major challenge, as it is estimated that only 13.50% of ICT profiles speak it. In terms of demographics, of all ICT positions, 83% were filled by men and 17% by women. The average population is between 29 and 33 years old.

Alberto Samuel Yohai, president of the Colombian Chamber of Informatics and Telecommunications, in an interview conducted by Portafolio.com, stated that ”the ICT sector currently adds more than 416,000 jobs in the country, it is only a matter of time before we begin to feel a significant shortage of truly qualified professionals that will be needed in areas such as big data, cybersecurity, data science, artificial intelligence and blockchain: areas where more than 85% of the vacancies that are generated, include as a requirement the mastery of a second language, which in most cases is English”.

It is clear to see that the mastery of a second language, in this case, English, provides greater job opportunities for all roles in the technology industry such as frontend and backend developers, DevOps, architects, UI/UX designers, Scrum Masters, project managers, among others, but for these professionals, it is also crucial to have excellent technical skills.

This is one of the reasons that adds a very unique value; this year we are supporting our employees to strengthen their English language skills with classes at a language school as part of their professional growth as we are now part of Adage technologies. This also reassures our compromise to keep expanding in the U.S market as well as our willingness to keep learning and updating to be a great partner for our clients.

Some of our employees are already working with our U.S clients, and the experience has been great.

Leave us your comments on this topic and we invite you to participate in our job offers for bilingual professionals.