The study showed what studies in Lithuania are associated with a successful career | Business

Compared to the situation a year ago, the attractiveness of engineering studies has increased by 5 percent. Economics and business management studies (21% recommend this year, 15% – last year) and law studies (20% – this year, 19% – last year) also entered the top five recommendations this year. Respondents might choose several answer options.

“We see trends that the demand for talents who can work in IT companies will grow in Lithuania in the near future – a significant part of startups are planning new products and services in the future, strengthening their positions in existing markets and considering expansion. IT and programming remain the most recommended fields of study by the public for the fourth year running – this meets the needs of the labor market. We must strive for as many people as possible to dare to create or to grow global technology businesses with their knowledge, and the innovations they create become successful solutions for the whole country”, Rūta Pukenė, head of research at Unicorns Lithuania, analyzes the results of the study.

81 percent of those surveyed would recommend or would rather recommend to their child or another relative who is finishing their studies to work at a startup (78% in 2023, 77% in 2022), the study in question also showed. When asked regarding the reasons, the respondents most often spontaneously named perspectives, new and great opportunities (27%), the opportunity to gain unique experience and improve (23%, last year – 14%). The keywords “profit”, “interesting”, “innovative”, “modern”, “develops entrepreneurship” are also mentioned. Disadvantages of working at a startup include risk, volatility and instability (7 percent this year, 10 percent last year).

“Today, the startup ecosystem in Lithuania consists not only of young and small businesses, but also of matured startups, scale-ups, for which, within 10 years, second-generation startup creators, we also observe the first successful sales and acquisitions of startups. The Lithuanian start-up sector is getting stronger, its maturity is growing, and the layers of the ecosystem are increasing. In order for Lithuania to be able to take advantage of all the opportunities provided by technology, we need to increase and grow the ecosystem of startups: more businesses with high added value and highly qualified talents. Successful development of start-ups lacks not only people with IT education, but also, for example, people who are able to commercialize products”, observes R. Pukenė.

According to Unicorns Lithuania, startups are currently looking for over 400 employees – not only IT, data analysts or engineers, cyber security specialists, but also product, sales, marketing, human resources, customer service, finance professionals and managers.