According to Andrius Veršinskas, Kaunas IN Director ad Interim and the Head of the Business Department, electronics engineering is a “sleeping beauty” of the future professions – the full impact of it is yet to be realised by the society.
“The Lithuanian economy is strongly driven by the industry where electronics specialists are in high demand. Hundreds of new jobs are planned in the market for electronics engineering specialists, while we have only dozens of new students choosing electronics engineering”, says Andrius Francas, a partner at Alliance for Recruitment, the largest recruitment consultancy in Lithuania.
According to him, such a situation leads to an increase in salaries in this field by about 10 per cent over the past few years. The same trend is projected for the future.
More skilled workers are needed
According to Jurgita Macijauskienė, Head of the Human Resources Department of HELLA Lithuania, with the rapid expansion of Kaunas and other regions Free Economic Zones (FEZ), the investments are growing. New factories are established, new industries emerge and technological progress in production and logistics is rapidly increasing.
“Production lines are becoming more and more automated, less and less unskilled labour is needed to service them. Therefore, more skilled workers are needed to take care of the maintenance, automation, robotics, programming and testing of these lines”, says Macijauskienė.
She points out that all these jobs require a high level of knowledge in electronics engineering: “We are currently witnessing a rapidly growing demand for these professionals in the market. The need will increase even more in the future”.
According to the Kaunas IN Head of the Business Department Veršinskas, one of the main aspects that makes Kaunas attractive to investors is the talent pool.
“The more talented professionals there are the greater the city’s prospects. The Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering of Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) is a leader in the region in preparing qualified electronics engineers”, says ‘Veršinskas.
Investments are not slowing down
Recently, such large automotive investors as Hella, Continental, Kitron and Littelfuse have expanded their operations in Kaunas, and continue to create new jobs. The experts believe that the wave of new investments that have come in recent years has significantly strengthened the position of Kaunas as an important centre of electronics engineering.
“Looking at the Central Eastern European region, especially over the last several years, the electronics engineering industry growth in Kaunas is noticeable. This sector is developing particularly fast, and the pace will certainly not slow down”, says Veršinskas.
To solve the problem of the supply of future specialists, the four largest electronic components manufacturing companies in the Kaunas region – Continental Automotive Lithuania, HELLA Lithuania, Kitron and Littelfuse LT – together with Kaunas IN agency, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) and Kaunas Technical College (KTK) introduced an initiative “The Future for Electronics”.
According to Andrius Francas, young people know little about electrical and electronics engineering. That’s why the companies operating in this field and the educational institutions that train these specialists need to talk more about the perspectives of this career.
“The young people don’t know how real job situations look like. There is an image that working in production is a dirty job, and there must be ideal cleanliness when it comes to the electronics industry”, says Francas.
Veršinskas agrees – the popular image of electronics and electronics engineering specialists does not reflect the reality.
“Work in this area is as creative as in the IT sector. The work environment can vary from office jobs to practical activities and laboratory work, where research and development activities are carried out. Therefore, the work in the field of electronics is perhaps very diverse and interesting”, says Veršinskas.
Average Lithuanian salary immediately after studies
The Head of the Human Resources Department of HELLA Lithuania, Macijauskienė, says that the wages in Kaunas city and region are among the highest in Lithuania. Moreover, the salaries here are gradually growing even amidst COVID-19 pandemics. These trends are reflected in the segment of the electrical and electronics industry, and this demonstrates the growing demand for these specialists.
“Most students in this field will have the opportunity to gain practical work experience through paid internship programmes while still at the university. After graduation, young professionals with up to a year of hands-on experience can already expect to receive an average salary or even higher. With the growth of the specialist’s experience and knowledge, the salary increases accordingly. The salaries of experienced engineers can exceed the average of Kaunas region two and more times”, says Macijauskienė, Head of Human Resources at HELLA Lithuania.
Francas estimates that the gross salary of novice electronics professionals ranges from €1,200 to €1,400, depending on the experience gained during the internship.
“Considering that the average gross salary in central Lithuania is about 1,350 euros, the graduates of electronics engineering can hope for it immediately after being employed. Besides, there are plenty of career opportunities for more experienced engineers in different companies: they can head projects and teams, become new product development engineers, which also means increased wages”, says Francas, partner at Alliance for Recruitment.
