The Spanish Engineering Observatory (OIE) has just presented an analysis of the engineering situation in the Spanish State and warns that some 200,000 new engineers will be needed over the next decade. Another relevant data relates the industrial GDP and the number of engineers in a country. Germany has an industrial GDP of 29% and 20.4 male and female engineers per 1,000 inhabitants. Spain, with an industrial GDP of 14.5%, has 15.7.
We know that Catalonia concentrates 16% of the population of Spain and contributes 21% to the state GDP. Also that the industrial GDP of Catalonia is 18.9% and that the aspiration of the Catalan Government is to increase industrial GDP to 25% in the year 2030.
For all these reasons, at the UPC we are already working on the hypothesis that, in Catalonia, between 55,000 and 72,000 new engineering professionals will be needed in the next 10 years, if we really want to increase industrial GDP by up to 25%. An estimate consistent with the situation of the Catalan labor market, in which the demand for engineering professionals (and VT profiles in the industrial and technological field) has skyrocketed as a result of the accelerated process of digitization of companies, the requirements of the ecological transition and the pressure of the large multinationals, which logically seek to attract highly valued talent.
In the 2021-2022 academic year, fewer than 5,000 new engineers graduated in Catalonia. Also, you have to remember that the people who will get their degree in the next four years are already in college. However, we have good news: in a highly masculinized profession –600,000 engineers and 150,000 female engineers (20%) according to the OIE report–, at the UPC, the percentage of women studying engineering is 29.45%. A figure that, in recent years, has been part of a positive trend and that makes us think that the gender bias is being corrected, albeit slowly.
From all this it can be deduced that the universities will have to graduate more engineers and, especially, female engineers. And, for this reason, we are working to improve the performance of engineering students and thus increase the percentage of people who complete the degree.
We also think about developing continuous training schemes that allow us to offer engineering training to professionals from other areas. And finally, we encourage more girls to see engineering as an interesting and useful possibility for the future. We cannot allow female talent to exclude themselves because, furthermore, it is a profession with very low unemployment (2%) and with salaries that are above the State average.
So it is essential to increase the offer of places and also attract talent from disadvantaged social sectors, which are traditionally very underrepresented in engineering degrees. We cannot forget that Catalonia is a pole of attraction for students and professionals from other countries, in the same way that some of our graduates go abroad. In my opinion, the two phenomena compensate each other.
The incorporation of engineering professionals to the future challenges of Catalonia cannot be linked solely to the generation of university graduates. The entire ecosystem must maximize its potential, generate new profiles and redirect professional careers through continuous training. We must create attractive environments so that professionals from around the world find in Catalonia a motivating country to develop their professional and vital project.
D. CRESPO, rector of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia - BarcelonaTech (UPC)
