Spain's IT staff crisis: 10,000 vacancies unfilled and no candidates

According to DigitalES, an organisation that represents IT and technology firms in Spain, specialists in the field are in high demand but short supply.

And in the European Union as a whole, up to 900,000 jobs in IT remain vacant because persons qualified to do them cannot be found.

DigitalES estimates that one in four technology companies in Spain has trouble filling vacancies.

Software engineers, full-stack programmers and systems architects are among the most difficult candidates to find, and firms generally advertise for staff with a degree or at least the equivalent of a BTEC HND or foundation degree in the subject.

But qualifications alone are not everything – they also need employees with post-graduate experience.

Experts in cyber-security are less in demand, but still sought-after.

Newer roles being created and needing employees are those of specialists in Big Data and business intelligence, and the demand – unlike those of full-stack programmers, cyber-security experts, systems architects and software engineers – is expected to remain stable or even increase over the next three years or so.

Basic requirements include professional training qualifications or FP – Spain's answer to the BTEC system – up to at least foundation degree level, or an actual degree, in IT, maths or physics, and a good working knowledge of English.

Graduates in business management and administration, or in economics, are also considered for these roles, but post-graduate experience in infrastructure programming and handling data using mathematical algorithms and statistics is also essential.

Visual interface and user experience (UI or UX) designers with a foundation degree, undergraduate degree or master's degree with 'profound' knowledge of design principles and of the most common software programmes are actively sought and likely to continue to be so in the next three years, and companies not searching for them at present expect to be looking for them in the near future.

Graduates in electrical or mechanical engineering, as has long been the case, continue to be needed and hard to find, especially those who have specialised in robotics or in agile methodologies such as Lean or Design Thinking.

Those with experience in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the 'Internet of Things', or IoT, combined with the other skills listed are especially welcome.

In terms of personality, IT specialists need to be capable of working efficiently as a team, cooperating with and supporting colleagues, as well as having the self-discipline to work individually, be able to give and receive feedback comfortably and respectfully, and work well and interact in a multi-cultural and multi-lingual environment.