As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, owing to the chronic lack of workers with the necessary skills on the Croatian labour market, the European Commission (EC) declared 2023 the year of skills. An entire spectrum of occupations is lacking in the area of Dalmatia, with a struggle to find employees in almost every field from construction to tourism. One of the solutions is retraining, writes HRT.
Irena Radic from Komiza is one of the sixty participants of the pottery and ceramics workshop. After thirty years of working in a store, she decided to take a different direction.
“It’s about retraining the production of souvenirs for our Komiza, today everything is focused on digital skills, but I think these skills should be developed as well,” she believes.
“People come to us – some because it’s just something they want to do for pleasure, but some people come because they want to take on new jobs. There are no rules when it comes to which genders approach us, and men and women come here,” said Sandra Sumic, the head of a pottery and ceramics workshop in Split.
Only 37 percent of adults regularly attend training, and the representative office of the European Commission in Croatia, in cooperation with the Europa Direct Centre in Split, pointed out the problem through the holding of various different workshops and lectures.
“The whole of Europe is facing a labour shortage, both with highly qualified and lower professional qualifications. Three quarters of employers in the EU are coping with difficulties in finding labour both in Croatia and elsewhere in Europe,” said the deputy head of the European Commission’s representation in Croatia, Andrea Covic Vidovic.
“The Croatian labour market is lacking in tourism and healthcare workers, and that’s why in the last two years, we have opened courses for nurses and we also have a competence centre,” said Blazenko Boban, the Prefect of Split-Dalmatia County.
Back in 2021, there was a shortage of workers on the Croatian labour market for as many as 28 professions!
“This issue spans the whole spectrum of occupations, from construction, personnel such as carpenters, masons… and on the other hand tourism workers, cooks, bartenders… That’s why we’re constantly organising retraining and training sessions,” said Marin Kanajet from the Croatian Employment Service’s (CES) regional office in the City of Split.
“We have an institution that deals with lifelong training. We’ll also strengthen this and we have to educate our people, not only the young, but also the elderly, because artificial intelligence (AI) is taking over jobs and that’s why they need to be retrained for something else,” said the mayor of Split, Ivica Puljak.
Undoubtedly, training and retraining are a big step in business across the European Union as a bloc, and these are issues which stretch far beyond the Croatian labor market.
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