University of São Paulo: Industry 4.0 faces a lack of specialized professionals
A report carried out by Gi Group Holding indicated that 66% of the world’s companies that are part of Industry 4.0 have difficulties in hiring specialized professionals, and in Brazil, this number rises to 88%. “Industry has always been a great source of innovation and technological development, mainly in the management area, in the production area. It has been part of a movement for some time to improve productivity, automation and also the incremental development of technologies. There was an incorporation of digital, information and communication technologies, which entered the middle of the work process such as robotics, the ‘cloud’, ob ig data”, says Professor André Lucirton Costa from the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting of Ribeirão Preto at USP.
“These technologies are relatively recent and were quickly incorporated into the industrial platform. So, you need people who know these technologies”, comments Costa. He adds that the production of products, especially software, that require knowledge of a specific language, is still an obstacle for 4.0 companies, as there is a lack of specialization.
Andre Lucirton Costa
“There are mechanisms on the internet for you to learn programming and a series of things that need to be incorporated into the course curricula. You realize the need for these instruments, for this new language to be taught to students in training at the university”, says the professor. Costa exemplifies initiatives that try to place these technologies in the professional world with Supera , a technology park that brings together several entities, including USP, in Ribeirão Preto.
Solutions
“Specialized technical courses are faster, they qualify you for the basics for you to enter the job market and do activities with ob ig data , programming or dealing with the internet of things, which are the technologies used in this Industry 4.0”, comments the specialist. Generally, the solutions, at least for entering the job market with basic knowledge, are short to medium term, as these courses offer fast and focused teaching.
However, in the long run, the professor explains: “The big problem Brazil has is basic education. We have a deficiency in education that is expensive, even more expensive than the investment in education for us to be able to bring people to the technological universe”. He adds: “It tends to be a bottleneck for the country. It’s not just a momentary difficulty. When it starts to spread to other areas, you will need more people with a skill that is difficult to learn”. With the home office, the country may start to lose jobs in this area to places with greater capacity for specialization.