TAMPA, Fla. — As job demand in the Tampa Bay area continues to rise, there’s a growing need for bilingual employees across the board.
- Need for bilingual professionals grew after Hurricane Maria
- School districts also seeing increased need
- Polk County hosing upcoming job fair
From banks to schools, different industries in Tampa Bay are trying to diversify their workforce, thanks in particular to the boom in the Hispanic population.
“We have had a bilingual hiring strategy for over a year,” said Jasiel Legon, SVP Chief Talent Officer at GTE Financial.
Last year, 35 percent of new hires at GTE Financial were Spanish-speaking bilingual.
Legon said the need for bilingual professionals grew even more after Hurricane Maria.
“We are hiring more and more senior levels that require bilingual [workers]; for example, some of our more senior jobs like branch managers or even regional managers,” he said.
School districts are also seeing this need. The Polk County School District says the number of Hispanic students has grown over the past five years.
However, only 12 percent of its teachers are bilingual – 24 percent less than the number of students that are bilingual.
“We have about 36 percent of our student population that self-identifies as Hispanic," said director of recruitment Annissa Wilfalk. "So we’re constantly recruiting and trying to track and hire bilingual teachers throughout the district.”
The district hopes to hire about 1,200 new teachers during an upcoming job fair, with bilingual abilities being a priority.
“We are hoping to close that gap, because we want all of our students to mirror our teacher population, so we have a ways to go,” Wilfalk said.
GTE Financial is currently recruiting dozens of new bilingual positions. You can find their job listings HERE.
Polk County Schools will have its job fair at St. John’s United Methodist Church in Winter Haven on May 8-9 from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.