The port sector suffers from a lack of qualified labor to occupy positions of technological innovation in ports. Porto de Santos is a great example.

Located in the seaside town of Santos, the Port of Santos is one of the most important on the continent. With such structure, logistics and technology, the place needs the best professionals and a lot of qualified labor. However, the Port of Santos is having a hard time finding trained professionals who have the technical knowledge to develop technologies and new logistics solutions. As a result, many job vacancies remain unoccupied due to lack of manpower.

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With competition from other port terminals, the Port of Santos it requires highly qualified labor to implement technologies that may solve the problems presented. Porto specialists usually work on a problem, looking for techniques and improvements to increase efficiency and automation.

In an article published in The Tribune, Ricardo Pupo Larguesa, founding partner of T2S Technologies, says that the market lacks qualification courses to improve workers to develop services, hence the difficulty in finding qualified labor to fill job openings.

"In the pandemic, demand increased and the problem (lack of personnel) became even more evident. The port sector cannot stop and companies needed more systems and adaptations so that those for internal use could go outside, as professionals were working from home. It was a security and infrastructure effort".

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Ricardo also highlighted a very present problem in the candidates, highlighting that many people get excited when they see that the market is heated and paying a good salary, however, he highlighted that it is necessary to have a basic knowledge in math, logic and english.

Porto de Santos is not the only one that has difficulties in finding qualified professionals

Marco Riveiros, CEO of Zero Thirteen Innovation, highlighted a study that projects the demand for 70 qualified professionals annually for the port sector. However, Brazil only has 46 people being trained annually with the capacity to take on these jobs. He highlighted that the shortage of labor is a global demand.

Luiz Simões, director of technology at Modalgr, informed that the company has 50 open positions, but that it has not yet found qualified labor to fill the vacancies.

Vander Serra Abreu, director of IPort Solution, points out that the pandemic prevents technical visits from universities in Porto, making it even more difficult to train new professionals. He also stated that he feels the lack of courses at universities with studies for solutions in the port area.

Serra also advised: professionals who want a job in this area must have technological innovation in their blood. In addition, it is necessary to know or want to learn about areas that still need to be automated.