Given the present and future challenges facing the planet, society and the people who live there -both globally and locally-, I think we agree that we will not be able to solve them only with the help of technology. In this sense, we have multiple actions and policies to promote STEM vocations (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), areas that require study capacity and effort to delve into research and innovation. We have a country and a society rich in these disciplines from centuries ago, with excellent professionals, but at the same time little valued in salary terms and very little present in the bodies of power and decision.
There is a need for recognition –also the salary– of the works and intellectual contributions in these matters by society, the market and the administrations. The most advanced societies know that the formula for success is knowing how to retain talent and having the capacity to import. And here we must appeal to our administrations and their double responsibility: when it comes to incorporating their professionals with technical profiles; and by placing professionals trained in the subjects they have to administer at the head of their units and agencies.
It is necessary that the public administrations convene new positions taking care of the competences for which the professionals have been trained in their university stages. The widespread confusion about the competencies of degrees and master's degrees is a loss of collective efficiency by generating mismatches between training and the functions to be carried out in the public sphere. But even more worrisome is the message that is sent to young professionals when they are appointed to relevant and powerful positions that have to have a transforming impact on people with training that does not match the skills that the position in question requires. If we want to convey to our young people that we need engineers, let's put them to lead public projects with a high technical and technological content.
Properly disposing and using talent is one of the best strategies and one with the greatest impact in the short term. In the long run, as a country, we need joint work between administrations, companies, schools and training centers to promote new generations of professionals with knowledge and skills –but also the opportunities– to lead certain areas of administrations, such as management bodies and decision of society, and help companies grow, both those that are already here and those that want to establish.
Because what attracts productive investments is knowing that beyond good railway or airport infrastructures, the talent they need will be found, and that the decisions of local administrations will be made with rigor and technical knowledge.
