International Business Staffing Challenges and the Growing Global Skills Gap in the New Post-COVID-19 Environment

Abstract

Scholars and practitioners in the United States, other nations, and regions, particularly Latin America and the Caribbean, cited the elementary through to grade 12 public education system as the source of the ever-widening rift between skills and education. Being the world's most unequal region with sparse accessibility to disruptive technology, the COVID-19 pandemic affected Latin America and the Caribbean region more adversely than all other regions. The asymmetry associated with Latin America and the Caribbean region permeates the education system as the student pass rates for a specific subject at the same grade level are highly dissimilar across countries forming the region. Additionally, the school curriculum exerts low importance on the absorption of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects, and the education system was and is still structured to prepare students for college rather than equipping them with the skills required to keep up with the ever-evolving global workplace.