Re: Gemer looking for educated labour, March 20 - March 26, 2006, Volume 12, Number 11
My wife is involved in the moving of a Danish company from Denmark to Slovakia. It will also be situated in eastern Slovakia and it's a major problem hiring skilled workers there. Those who were there, have left for other more prosperous parts of Slovakia or abroad. The few who are left are of the older generation not fit or adapted to the new more efficient way of working etc. They don't speak any foreign language and don't understand the Danish flat organizational structure, hence no initiative and personal responsibility. And everything takes at least twice as long to do.
There a major effort has to be made to upgrade the workforce in the eastern parts of Slovakia in particular. The state agency, SARIO, and the foreign investors must make themselves clear, that strong effort here and now regarding education must be carried out before opening business there and foreign investors must stop thinking of Slovakia as a country with cheap labour, because you get what you pay for, not more, not less. There's a perfectly reasonable explanation why salaries are higher in western Europe than they are in eastern Europe. It's not only lower taxations, but also a great lack of efficiency.
Jesper,
Denmark
