ŽILINA-based carmaker Kia Motors Slovakia is having difficultly filling vacancies due to a shortage of suitable and experienced candidates for numerous key positions.
Those positions include varnisher, toolmaker, press operator, CNC machine and robot operator, quality engineer, machinist, electro-technician for maintenance and facilities, Jozef Bačé, spokesperson of Kia Motors Slovakia, told The Slovak Spectator.
The carmaker sees several factors behind the shortage of these specialists, with Bačé citing a lower number of school leavers attending programmes in fields for which there is demand, lower interest among children and parents in the given fields, and a weaker theoretical (and especially practical) preparation of students.
“We try to solve the problem of the shortage in specialists mostly by training employees already working in our company, [as well as] more detailed training in the workplace or in some of the suppliers of the technologies,” said Bačé.
According to the carmaker, when planning the capacities of individual study fields, secondary schools and regional governments should take into consideration the real situation on the labour market and cooperate more with companies in the region.
“Afterward, school leavers would have a higher chance of using the obtained skills in practice and would not end up at the job offices,” said Bačé, adding that the carmaker is cooperating with secondary vocational schools over the long term. It has already launched its own education programmes with elements of a dual education system.
