Uruguay works to attract qualified talent and boost the growth of its entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem

To encourage more companies to choose Uruguay and those already established in the country to continue to grow, the investment, export, and country brand promotion agency Uruguay XXI, through its Talent area, implements instruments to facilitate the access, attraction, and development of talent in the global services sector, which includes technology, corporate services, life sciences, architecture, and engineering.

Uruguay offers a high quality of life, a dynamic environment with great opportunities, and outstanding macroeconomic and political stability in the region. Regarding talent, with universal and free access to all levels of education, Uruguay’s human resources are competitive, skilled, and multilingual. International investors recognize the quality of Uruguayan workers and distinguish them by their agile adaptation to new technologies, versatility in the range of programming languages and development tools, and high specialization in different sectors.

In addition, the country, which is gradually consolidating its position as a talent hub, constantly receives qualified migrants who seek and find employment there. In addition to timely actions to attract this foreign public, Uruguay XXI offers them the portal www.liveinuruguay.uy to provide information and tools to facilitate their settlement.

In this direction and as part of a continuous effort to attract talent, the government agency’s talent area recently participated in a new edition of IT Builders Live together with the National Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (INEFOP) for the second consecutive year. Both organizations shared a booth to promote programs and tools for developing talent and strengthening skills focused on the ICT sector.

The meeting, which gathered more than 3,000 participants and brought together the entire Uruguayan technology community at the Antel Arena, included presentations by leading figures from the international and national technology sector and talks on various topics such as data science, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and fintech.

Uruguay XXI’s Talent specialist, Andrea Aguilera, together with INEFOP’s business technician, Santiago Martínez, gave the workshop “IT Training: public support to individuals and companies for access to employment in technology,” which aimed to give visibility to the subsidies available in the country that contribute to improving the employability of individuals and the competitiveness of companies.

Aguilera presented the programs and tools available to attract and train talent. She highlighted the Finishing Schools program, whose objective is “to encourage and facilitate the generation of new jobs, as well as new capacities for the installation of companies or the expansion of operations.” The Talent specialist reviewed that this is a strategic tool jointly deployed by Uruguay XXI and INEFOP. Its strategy is to facilitate the development and access to talent for new investments with an emphasis on exports that are oriented to the generation of new jobs.

The program is aimed at supporting companies’ demand by co-financing the implementation of training plans for the development of technical competencies or soft skills of workers so that they can incorporate them into their staff. This tool finances—on a non-reimbursable basis—up to 70% of the costs of training plans for companies exporting services.

Companies with an emphasis on exports in any sector of activity may apply through an agile and simple process. Proposals are evaluated in a maximum of 10 calendar days. The program has a team to support companies throughout the application process.

During the workshop, she also presented the rest of the Uruguay XXI instruments that seek to facilitate access to talent for companies. Among them are the Fast Track procedure, which supports companies in obtaining visa and residency appointments; the Live in Uruguay website, which is a platform created to guarantee a better experience of arrival to the country and residence of qualified talent; and Smart Talent, the free labor portal aimed at service exporting companies in the IT, corporate, life sciences, engineering and architecture sectors. The platform is a meeting point between the demands of companies, academia, and job seekers.