PERSONAL COMPETENCES FOR FUTURE LABOUR MARKET IN VIDZEME REGION, LATVIA

This article analyses personal competencies that will be necessary for employers in Vidzeme region in Latvia within the next 5-7 years in the context of rapid changes in the labour market and technologies. This article confirms the importance of quality of education in sustainable development and highlights the most important preconditions. The data were analysed after they were collected through electronic questionnaire of employers and Delphi method interactive forecasting method which relies on a panel of experts, and both confirm the growing role of personal competencies for future labour market. The article reflects the most important reasons for insufficient vocational training mentioned by employers, such as lack of motivation and inadequate choice of profession as well as the role of schools and their challenges in order to improve this situation. Delphi experts answered questionnaires in two rounds and rated the most important personal competences of the future workforce, and the most important were the ability to learn, the ability to change and the ability to make decisions. As a result, 11 personal competencies groups were created, and 5 of them were analyzed in more detail. The study confirmed the high importance of foreign language skills, engineering needs for future labour market as well as the high quality requirements of the labour force in large enterprises.