In just two years, Spain has risen to become the seventh country with the highest digital maturity in the European Union. Yet over the coming decade, a shortage of workers ready to benefit from the ongoing technological revolution is anticipated. In response to this talent gap in Spain’s major companies, STEMDO, a startup founded mid last year, aims to bypass the saturated competition for the same profiles in big cities by cultivating them in high-unemployment regions like Huelva and Andalusia. The plan is to have 30 new professionals emerge within a few months.
Our goal is to open new frontiers of opportunity to address the digital talent shortage in areas such as cloud computing, e-commerce, cybersecurity, and the metaverse. There is strong technological education across many parts of Spain, but in places outside the big urban centers, Madrid, Barcelona, and others have long forced workers to either pause their professional growth or relocate. The leadership at STEMDO believes this dynamic can be changed. Montilla, CEO and co-founder, explains that there is no longer a need to tether talent to a single city.
The name STEMDO derives from the acronym STEM, standing for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It encompasses all roles connected to advancing technology, from digital government services to private sector innovations, the development of the metaverse, and artificial intelligence. According to McKinsey and Company, a new industry called the Future of Work is set to boost demand for STEM employment to about 30 percent by 2030, potentially leaving hundreds of thousands of positions unfilled in Spain.
Statistics from the National Institute of Statistics show that more than 145,000 digital-profile roles were advertised in Spain by the end of last year, a figure that aligns with data from the Spanish Digitization Association, which notes 120,000 unfilled technology vacancies.
STEMDO does not intend to operate as a traditional recruitment agency for large firms. Instead, it envisions partnerships with companies to fulfill specific project needs through a STEM B2B platform.
As Montilla notes, finding a cohort of 20 workers with a highly specialized technical profile for a single project is often a slow, costly process. The company aims to fulfill these needs efficiently without reducing the workers’ rights or earning too much pressure on them. The employment terms offered are designed to be highly competitive, making it harder for large companies to poach talent. He points out that about 80 percent of job offers in the sector provide this stability.
The STEMDO model focuses on creating new jobs in regions that already have foundational training in place but lack a fully developed industry. Rather than competing for the same workers in Madrid or Barcelona, the startup seeks to build opportunities in areas where there are enduring unemployment challenges.
Today, these regions often lack similar employment prospects, despite having strong educational ecosystems. STEMDO provides cutting-edge training in the latest technologies, guarantees wages from day one, and works to retain talent by continually improving working conditions. The regional environment is advantageous for both employees and companies, according to Montilla, who emphasizes ongoing dialogue with local governments to align incentives and outcomes.
Talent retention, according to STEMDO, hinges on competitive salaries and the flexibility to combine in-person collaboration with telework. Companies value the chance for employees to come to an office for a few days each week, especially in the early stages of a project and for younger professionals who benefit from hands-on collaboration.
Thirty jobs have already been created in Huelva
The first project, developed in Huelva where unemployment hovers around 18 percent, directly created 30 roles focused on cloud technologies and related education. The initiative seeks to establish at least two additional offices in similar provinces during 2023, selecting locations with populations of 100,000 to 200,000 inhabitants. These areas already boast solid digital education pipelines, including universities and vocational programs, making them fertile ground for expanding digital employment.