A poor level of English is still one of Latin America's most significant competitive weaknesses, especially in the countries of Central America.
Of the 60 countries evaluated in the English Proficiency Index developed by EF Educatio First (EF EPI), Costa Rica ranks in 37th place, Guatemala at number 52, followed by El Salvador at 53 and Panama at 56.
A professional degree used to be a guarantee of social mobility and prestige, but the current labour market pays little for some of them.
The labor market can be compared to the commercial market. Salaries are defined by the evolution of supply and demand. When supply is greater than demand, salaries are lowered and when demand is greater than supply, wages rise.
Traditional education punishes errors with bad grades, when in fact the essence of entrepreneurship and innovation is all about trial and error.
Andres Leon, manager of entrepreneurship at the business accelerator in Ciudad del Saber, knows that the first step is to break through the paradigms. And he is the right age to do it: 23.
Alfonso Acosta's article in Prensa.com, reviews the basic concepts that Andres Leon preaches as a consultant in entrepreneurship:
While in the rest of the world the standard is close connections between the private sector and academia, the region is still holding on to old ideological myths, which negatively affect development.
On inaugurating in El Salvador the II National Congress of Higher Education entitled "Linking Higher Education to the Workplace", the Minister of Education, Franzi Hato Hasbun, noted the need to "carry out a process of connection between company and university , encouraging three fundamental aspects: research, innovation and overcoming social projections. "
State universities should be accountable for the money they spend and how this investment supports national productivity.
Protected by their academic autonomy, educational institutions at tertiary level in Costa Rica are slow and inflexible in adapting to the demands of the Costa Rican economy.
A study commissioned by Cinde and conducted by INCAE, entitled "Human Resource Development: The key to compete in attracting foreign direct investment," analyzes the availability in the present and until 2014, of talented human resources in the areas of services, life sciences and advanced manufacturing.
In 2012, CADE will analyze the synergy between education and economy, because in order to have sustained economic growth it is necessary to have quality education and an emphasis on labor market requirements.
CADE is a conclave or annual summit meeting of executives and entrepreneurs in general, from across the country which brings together all members of the Panamanian Association of Business Executives (APEDE), with active participation of all Chapters and whose main purpose is to discuss, analyze and seek solutions to national problems.
Out of all the countries on the isthmus, only Panama’s Human Development Index follows the upward trend set by Latin America and the Caribbean.
Since the 1990 publication of the Human Development Index (HDI), the number has shown an upward trend for the vast majority of nations. This overall positive trend has been exceeded by some countries, such as South Korea and China, while others, such as Zimbabwe and Lesotho, have actually moved in a negative direction.
According to the UN Development Program (UNDP) index, within Central America Panama comes first at no. 58 followed by Costa Rica (69), El Salvador (105), Honduras (121), Nicaragua (129) and Guatemala at no. 131.
While Panama's ranking has moved up one spot since the last time the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) was published, Costa Rica and Honduras have slipped back a place.
Latin America is barely ahead of Africa in quality standards and conditions affecting local businesses.
As a region, Central America, is located in the second half of the list entitled ‘Doing Business 2012’.
Doing Business 2012, a report by the World Bank this year added a new area of analysis, which is the ease of obtaining an electrical connection, along with the traditional items which include: ease of starting a business, management of construction permits, registering property , getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, cross border trade, enforcing contracts, and insolvency resolution.
The Global Skills Shortage Survey 2011 by Manpower reveals that employers are finding it increasingly difficulty to fill jobs with qualified personnel.
One in three employers (34%) worldwide said they are having difficulty filling positions due to lack of available talent, an increase of three percentage points compared to 2010.
The global economic downturn may have masked the talent shortage for several years, but the global recovery, despite its slowness, has made the tension created by lack of talented workers more evident, now that organizations who have reduced staff levels are finding that they need more of the right kind of people to make progress and support the company strategy.
Main conclusions regarding the Central American economy between 2008 and 2011.
The State of the Region Report is a tool by Central America for Central America, which analyzes and tracks the major challenges of sustainable human development. In this fourth report, the titles of the main conclusions on the topic Economy are presented:
- Intra-regional migration is concentrated between Nicaragua and Costa Rica
In Guatemala an Economic Culture Survey found that nearly 6 in 10 people do not know what interest rate is.
"39% of the population of Guatemala recognizes not to know what interest rate are and almost 20% has a misconception; the bottom line is that nearly 6 out of 10 Guatemalans do not know what interest rate means."
The survey on economic culture was conducted in Guatemala, but similar results would be obtained in other regional countries.