Thanks to more than 50 years of experience in the export industry, Tijuana has earned its place in Mexico for having the highest number of maquiladoras in the country and generating more than 1,995,600 jobs. Due to growth and globalization, the industry has a new goal; to scale in the production chain in order to provide services, processes or products with a higher added value.

As a result of this growth, a new challenge for improving methods which require greater specialization and preparation of human resources in the region has been added to Tijuana’s industry.

The global industry focuses more on trends such as automation and the use of new technologies. These trends generate a constant search for increasingly specialized professionals, such as, software developers focused on a global market, robot language programming technicians and entrepreneurs that implement new production systems or provide more specialized services to the maquiladora market.

The new demand for talent forces Tijuana’s industry to improve its search. Maquiladoras in Tijuana began to develop in-house design capabilities with engineers and technicians. Thanks to some companies’ success stories, this trend has been seen more frequently.

The Plantronics design center turns thirteen this year. In 2013, the center in Tijuana was the recipient of two awards for innovation from the CES. Zodiac is another company that operates in Tijuana. They manufacture aircraft interiors and have more than 58 specialized engineers in this area.

DEITAC contributed to the installation of two major projects, which were made possible because of the City of Tijuana’s bicultural background, adaptability, engineering expertise, information technology and software development.

The first of these projects is Samsung’s center of research and development. It currently has 60 programmers and 20 designers that develop world class digital content. The second project is the Thermofisher Scientific center, which has initiated a linking process with local universities. It will later require more than 200 software developers for biotechnologies. Flex invested 20 million dollars in its excellence center in Tijuana.

Mozart Corporate, Barbachano International, Ruiz Morales Firm, and P&C are recognized for their work in recruiting and managing staff. Theromofisher and Flex have worked closely with these companies in order to attract the required talent, also linking with government and local universities for the development of new profiles.

To meet the new demand of abilities for the over 2,000 engineers that graduate each year, work must be focused on creating a multidisciplinary approach and taking advantage of the geographical location by forming bi-national networks between technical schools and universities in the region.

In a study by the P&C firm in 2014 on the new workforce profile that the industry is creating, it shows that 35% of companies think that there will be a greater positive impact on the creation of technical posts and engineering, with the use of robots.

In order to remain competitive in the global market, Tijuana has to be able to develop and retain this new talent. The goal is to not only be a provider of command work but also a unique provider of high value and innovation.