In the hands of a dream profession diploma, but without work: thousands of young people repeat the same mistake.

This list is based on job advertisements registered with the Employment Service.

If a list of the “most in demand” professions were drawn up according to the same principle, it would include lawyers, dentists and psychologists, for whom there is only one job offer in the whole country.

The three majors that are now “not in demand” have been included in the list of the most popular studies at universities in 2019.

Why do future students choose prestigious law studies each year, but not civil engineering? What should be followed when choosing not to join the ranks of the unemployed and retrain after four years of study? Marija Vyšniauskaitė, Head of the Education Center of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, shared her thoughts on this topic.

– What could be the LFMI advice for young people preparing for higher education? How, what to choose so that in a few years there will be no remorse and additions to the ranks of the unemployed? We asked M. Vyšniauskaitė.

– Don’t choose a specific specialty just because it’s popular and missing today, unless it’s an area where you envision yourself in 7-10 years. It is important to look to the future and your personal qualities.

The missing specialty lists are constantly changing. Choosing to study the currently popular studies, if they are not pleasant, reduces the chances of completing them successfully. There’s been a lot of talk lately about the lack of programmers and their space salaries. Not surprisingly, enrollment in programming has doubled as a result, but statistics show that there has been no increase in the number of IT graduates who graduated and were employed in the field.

This happens when you enter not where you are near, but where someone else thinks it should be promising. When you are forced to study something that does not interest you, it does not correspond to your inclinations and abilities: studying becomes unbearable suffering. On the contrary, by studying and doing close and interesting work, you can naturally and without much difficulty become a professional in the field.

Specialties on demand are a myth.

People are really in demand or not. There are big differences between the same programmers. Employers are really fighting for highly skilled IT professionals, offering them multiple times the salary at home several times the average salary. But if a programmer’s skills are average, then his salary will be slightly different from the national average.

The ranks of the unemployed will not be complemented by those who will be able to make the most of their studies and find ways to use the skills acquired in the market. It does not depend at all on the chosen specialty. Sometimes it is better to be the best chef or philosopher than the average lawyer or programmer.

– What does the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine reveal, which specialists are not affected by COVID-19?

– The coronavirus is affected by professionals in all fields. Only for some it is negative, for others it can be positive. Happiness or, at least, will be suffered by those who thought entrepreneurially and were able to adapt to the changing situation, such as the dressmakers who began sewing protective masks, the stores that offered home delivery, the cafes that began to bring takeaways, as well like online shopping. and services.

The saddest thing for those whose activities have been restricted due to quarantine are tourism, hotels, airlines, beauty and other services. Also for those whose businesses are related to other countries, since the quarantine has interrupted international trade chains.

Covid-19 has shown that it is impossible to predict what awaits you in the future, how important adaptability is, and how important it is to be prepared for a contingency even in the best moments of economic recovery. Due to the virus, more work can be moved into virtual space, now people have been forced to learn to communicate, study, trade, manage bureaucracy and entertain themselves online. Some of them are likely to prefer electronic services even after returning to normal. Therefore, the need for specialists in this field may increase.

– What would be your forecast if it were necessary to appoint specialists who will be in demand in five years?

– It is difficult to say exactly how the labor market will change, what specialties will exist in the future and which will disappear. The Employment Service predicts that by 2030 the demand for IT, culture, entertainment and finance specialists will grow in Lithuania, and there will be a shortage of teachers. But keep in mind that this is just an assumption that won’t necessarily come true in an ever-changing world.

A few years ago, carriers talked about driver shortages, sales reps about the need for sellers, but the current situation shows that the demand for drivers and sellers has decreased significantly, the need for them will be less and less in the future. . The need for drivers has been met by employees from neighboring countries, and ATMs are rapidly being replaced by automatic cash registers.

It is important to remember that the Fourth Revolution is currently underway, with many of the routine functions that we are used to automating. Big changes are also waiting for the improvement of artificial intelligence. If until now the mechanisms have changed physical work, now the field of mental work is also changing.

– What qualities will a future specialist have to have?

– Sometimes it seems that the most important thing today: technology and perspectives only have those who understand the numbers. The humanities have a poor future in some museum or library.

This is not true. Bright prospects and more exciting tasks await those who understand how the world works, will be able to strategize, persuade others, and respond to the needs of society.

The biggest obstacles to artificial intelligence itself today are not technological but moral and social. It is necessary to decide which life should be protected by a self-propelled car, when to disconnect life support devices, who should take responsibility for the actions of artificial intelligence, etc.

Critical thinking, collaboration, creativity are one of the most important skills of the 21st century. Not even the smartest artificial intelligence will compete with them. People with these qualities will be able to easily adapt in any field, create non-standard ideas and generate tasks for the robots themselves.

To be useful in the job market, you must be able to solve problems. This is what employers are looking for and customers are willing to pay for it. It doesn’t matter if you’ve figured out how to reduce factory pollution or how to grow delicious tomatoes in winter in Lithuania.

It is up to you if you work with the help of old technology or methods. Anyone who makes someone else’s life easier will do it better, better, faster, or cheaper than the other; will find its place in the world of the future.

Most important is the ability and willingness to learn, think independently, and turn everything into benefits for others who want to pay for it.

– In your opinion, do the universities and colleges themselves manage to adjust study programs, change the number of participants according to changes in the labor market?

– Changes in the market are happening faster than educational institutions can react. But higher education should not be expected to respond to the latest trends in the labor market and to be taught to be representative of each specific and narrow specialty. This is more of a professional training area.
The goal of higher education is to teach you how to think and solve problems independently, to provide tools that can then be applied in any workplace.

The skills required for a specific job can and should be learned in each job. Employers benefit from discovering and motivating employee talent. Even after moving from one logistics company to another, you must learn to work with new programs, adapt to a different job planning system, learn a new language, etc.

However, studies should be based on the latest scientific knowledge and discoveries, their connection to real life and the basic principles of the field of study. One should not forget and not be fooled, because often the same old lectures are hidden behind modern study programs.

– Change teachers and non-profit programs using old methods: the responsibility of the universities, the ministries or the students themselves?

– Students must be demanding with the quality of the studies. When choosing where to study, it is not enough to self-evaluate the name of the university and the program of study. See what teachers work there, what areas they specialize in, what research they do, how they teach, how they are evaluated by other students. See specific lists of subjects taught in the chosen study program, discover exactly what you will study.

Perhaps the studios are filled with unimportant, general, or interesting lectures.

Sometimes universities teach what they can teach, what teachers they have, rather than what students need. If the lectures are of low quality, the teaching methods are outdated: the students themselves must initiate the solution of the problem, communicate with the faculty management and ask to resolve the situation.

It is not advisable to lose 4 years at a time when much more useful things could be done at that time. It is not enough to sit passively at unsatisfactory lectures and, at the end of the studies, get angry that a bad university, bad teachers have not learned anything. Often after that, those people want to sit in the office and get a good salary just because they have a college degree. That is not the case. Everyone must be demanding first of themselves and then of the environment.

– Why have law, business administration and psychology studies been among the most popular majors in the ranks of future students for decades? Does pressure from parents, teachers and society to choose a “prestigious” specialty work?

– There are at least two reasons for this: psychological and cultural. When you are 18, deciding what you want to study and then do in life is very difficult, because you have probably tried little without lessons and groups. Only a very small percentage of students are firmly aware of what they would like to do. For those who don’t know this, a psychologically safe option is to choose proven and “prestigious” studies if they manage to join.

Since the most popular studies include a wide range of social science majors, this is not a bad choice for many. It is possible to learn the basics, which will then be improved upon in more specific master studies or applied in a specific workplace.

The second reason is that higher education is highly valued and sometimes overvalued in Lithuania. The graduate is affected by the feeling of the pack: it is necessary to unite, because everyone is standing. There is pressure from peers, family, society.

Combining external pressure with internal confusion and haste can get you out of the way you unexpectedly find your way to, but you might also invest in activities for 4 years that will be of no value to you.

– So what should a young person who chooses a specialty follow?

– From the question of what would you like to do in 7 or 10 years. From the self-assessment, what kind of job do you want to work in the future, in what field, how should your work day be. Look at your personal qualities: if the numbers are closer to you, or how to communicate with people, if you are more of a leader or a follower, if you take responsibility, want precise tasks, which team you feel comfortable with or want to work with quietly from 8 to 5, Do you want challenges and are you ready to count the time?

And do not overestimate your studies because it is not a life sentence. Those who want to pursue a career, work in various fields, change their job profile, study not for 12 plus 4 years, but for life.