Alsa, the Asturian company that is the leader in road passenger transportation in Spain, had to employ drivers in Latin America and Morocco due to the lack of professionals in Spain. Alsa president Jacobo Cosmen emphasized this during his participation in the conference in Barcelona. “Active employment policies are the pillar of the European Year of Skills”It was organized as part of Spain’s EU presidency events.
Cosmen heads a centuries-old group that transports 530 million people a year. 6,000 vehicles and it works 16,000 people. “Our customers do not come to our offices, and therefore our drivers are our brand ambassadors. Friendliness, safety training and concern for sustainability make us different,” Cosmen said.
However, Alsa is not exempt from the problems of lack of qualified labor in many branches of activity, such as the entire road transportation sector. Cosmen pointed out that there are more than one million bus and tour bus drivers in Europe and 10 percent are vacant positions. “And the most worrying thing is that in five years the needs will double because of these million drivers – 40% of them are over 55 and only 3% are under 25.”, he explained, before highlighting the lack of qualifications (a lack of job seekers with bus licenses and complementary safety training) and the difficulties of attracting female and young talent. For this reason, requesting support from the public for training, Cosmen explained that Alsa has had to launch driver recruitment campaigns from Spain to Latin American countries for months due to “facilities with language and culture”, but in some cases no vehicles were available. opportunities to homologate the card”. In addition, in cooperation with the Ministry of Accession and Migration, they also bring drivers from Morocco, “because we operate in that country and we already have selection processes,” said Cosmen, adding that the lack of drivers is a global problem of Alsa. “It became a challenge,” he added. “When we started operating in Lisbon, we Cape Verde“he explained.
Cosmen shared a discussion table María Jesús AlmazorCEO Telefonica Tech, We spoke with Klemens Haselsteiner, CEO of construction giant Strabag, who emphasized that all companies in the ICT sector are “competing for a very limited supply of digital talent.” The day was opened by European Employment Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, who highlighted the “lots of progress” in the Spanish labor market despite unemployment rates; and second vice president and Acting Minister of Labor Yolanda Díaz, who announced that she would submit a legislative proposal to the European Commission to make on-the-job training “a right” of citizens. “This is not just about youth and people are facing a dramatic unemployment situation,” she said.