The difficulty in finding English speakers is the main bottleneck to Nicaragua's tourism industry.
In 2012, Nicaragua received 241,000 visitors from the U.S., 77,000 from Europe and 30,710 from Canada, representing 30% of the total of the 1.18 million tourists who came into the country.
This segment, very valuable because of its purchasing power, is becoming increasingly difficult for local operators to cater to, due to a shortage of bilingual staff.
Little English proficiency, little knowledge of the logistics business and the situation of near full employment, is leading many companies to hire foreign staff.
Willys Delvalle, president of the Panama Maritime Chamber, explained that in order to solve the problem, a cooperation agreement has been signed with the University of Panama and "we want to sign more with other universities so that the students can have internships in our businesses and to learn more about the line of business", he said.
There are plenty of applicants for the posts, but there are few who are really qualified to meet the demands of each job.
A study entitled 'Lack of Talent 2011' by the firm Manpower Group shows that 30% of companies in Costa Rica say they have trouble finding certain types of staff such as technicians, salesmen and secretaries with the required skills.
Colombian, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, Dominican and Spanish are among the nationalities of the immigrants who are coming to Panama to work.
Economic growth in Panama and the works of a series of large projects have raised the interest of foreigners who come to work in the country.
According to data from the Ministry of Labor and Workforce Development (Mitradel) 11,037 work permits was granted to foreigners in 2011 , about 1,063 more permits than in 2010 (10,224).
In order to keep attracting foreign investment Costa Rica needs to produce more professionals in the fields of technology, who speak three languages and have the ability to make decisions.
To attract more investment in the area of new technologies, Costa Rica requires more engineers with computer skills, three languages and the ability to solve real problems.
A bill entitled "English for All" aims to promote English language learning, so the country may take advantage of many job and development opportunities that it is currently missing out on.
The project "English for All Act" is among a package of economic recovery bills being promoted by the economy committee of Parliament, said the representative Pedro Muadi Menendez, from the ruling Partido Patriota to Lahora.com.gt.
The battle rages between companies to procure staff with the necessary skills, especially proficiency in a second language, for their call centers.
The call center industry in Panama, which employs 12,000 people in total, has three major competitors: Dell, Sitel and Star Contact, companies with several thousand employees in a market where the supply of bilingual human resources is reaching its maximum.
Cacif, leader of the Guatemalan private sector, has presented a report entitled "Trends in the labor market in the last thirty years"
The report by the Coordinating Committee of Agricultural, Commercial, Industrial and Financial Associations (Cacif) states:
Guatemala's economic structure has been under constant pressure in recent decades. Every year new people are added to the workforce without there being economic growth which is high enough to incorporate them in an appropriate and dignified way into the formal labor market. In 1980 the economically active population (EAP) in the country was about 2,462,812 people and the number affiliated to the IGSS was 755,542, indicating that only 30% of the EAP was employed in the formal sector. This figure in itself was worrying, because it means the remaining 70% were working on an informal basis, which inevitably means lower wages and without any kind of safety net for health and old age.
There are appeals to make teaching English obligatory and to encourage cooperation between private enterprises and the government in order to make the country more attractive to the contact center industry, and generate more jobs.
The Government and the private sector aim to create a common initiative to attract more call centers companies, and create 50,000 new jobs for young people, mainly in the next few years ahead, said Elperiodico.com.
The Net Employment Outlook for the first three months of 2012 is +24%, putting more pressure on a market with a serious shortage of qualified human resources.
While efforts are being made to the train people locally, foreigners continue to come into the country to meet the demand of international companies based there.
Eric Quesada, Regional Director for Manpower, said: "Today there are significant challenges for companies to find staff, specially skilled staff. The foreign population is constantly increasing, as people come to fill the positions that are not being covered locally. "
With the growing demand for bilingual staff, private organizations and government agencies have created a program entitled "English Training for Call Centers".
The project, by nature public / private, aims to bring some 400 new employees who are bilingual in English / Spanish into the job market .
The growth of the call center industry has been maintained since 2005 at a rate of 29% per annum despite the lack of qualified bilingual staff.
In the past six years the call center sector grew by 29%.
According to the Agency for Promotion of Exports and Investments (Proesa), the call center industry accounts for 60% of GDP, and is one of those responsible for injecting the most dynamism into the economy.
Companies that already operate in the country, El Salvador Sykes, Teleperformance and Stream Global Services, are now joined by U.S.
Current business needs do not match up with the supply of professionals nationwide.
Lack of public policies encouraging diversification of careers, and the limited interest of students in non-traditional careers are two of the reasons for the low supply of personnel in the country on offer to companies that come looking for laborers.
Currently in El Salvador students are choosing courses which have little demand from businesses, which leads to frustration when they try, and fail, to find a job.
Transactel continues to grow. It is currently looking for a new building outside San Salvador, and has advertised for 250 vacancies to be filled, predicting that at the end the year they will have a total of 2,300 employees.
Guillermo Valiente, director of Transactel El Salvador, said that one potential site for the new headquarters is in the Northern Zone, but "the most important thing is whether the human resources will be there."
A lack of qualified personnel, an aging population and legal obstacles preventing the hiring of foreigners are impacting on the competitiveness of businesses.
The problem, faced by all economic sectors alike, is causing an overall increase in wage levels.
"Just a few years ago, the list of professionals who were difficult to recruit in the labor market focused on bilingual accountants, civil engineers, logistics specialists and high-profile managers, eventually others have been added to that list such as domestic workers, sales executives, beauty technicians and foremen", reported Prensa.com.