The Talent Is There. What's Missing Is Someone to Vouch for It

Two facts that shouldn't be able to coexist: 72% of employers worldwide can't fill their open positions, according to a ManpowerGroup survey of 39,063 employers in 41 countries [1]. And in Moldova, the share of employers reporting staff shortages rose from 16% in 2021 to 18% in 2022 and 30% in 2023, with around 10,500 vacancies left unfilled [3].

In other words, companies are searching, but people aren't getting through. And not because they don't exist.

The shortage isn't in people — it's in signal

Look at what employers are actually after, and the picture becomes clear. The hardest technical skills to find today are in AI and engineering, but the most sought-after qualities are still human ones: communication, collaboration and teamwork (39%), professionalism and work ethic (36%), adaptability and a willingness to learn (34%) [1].

None of these shows up on a CV, and none of them is taught as a subject in its own right. They all reveal themselves in only one situation: when a person is actually working.

Mentors: the most underrated tool

There's a study that has become a classic: the mentoring programme at Sun Microsystems, analysed by Gartner. Retention was 72% among mentees and 69% among mentors, compared with 49% among those who didn't take part; mentees were promoted five times as often, and mentors six times as often [4]. Separately, Randstad reports that employees are 49% less likely to leave companies that run mentoring programmes [5].

So mentoring isn't charity, and it isn't a "nice-to-have". It's one of the most effective tools for developing and retaining people — and yet one of the least used at scale.

Experience converts — if it's structured

Hands-on work under guidance doesn't just teach; it hires. According to NACE's 2026 Internship & Co-op Survey, the rate at which interns convert into full-time hires reached 63.1% for the 2024–25 cohort — a five-year high — while the offer acceptance rate rose to 88.3% [2].

But this is where the real problem lies: that path only works for those who have access to it. A student without a company "of their own" has no internship, no mentor and no conversion.

What this means for Moldova

Moldova's tripled shortage [3] isn't a shortage of intelligence. It's a shortage of mechanism. There are 10,500 unfilled vacancies and, at the same time, capable people who have no way of proving they're the right fit.

And companies aren't the only ones paying the price. When talent has no channel through which it can be validated, it doesn't wait around — it leaves the country or slips into the informal economy. The difference between a country that keeps its talent and one that loses it isn't the number of students. It's whether there is a mechanism that turns their work into proof.

Who needs to do what

Universities already have a steady flow of people and academic work. What's missing is turning that work into something the market has assessed: coursework and theses built around real problems from real companies.

Companies have the need but not the time to build a pipeline from scratch. Publishing a single real problem, with clear success criteria, brings in more validated candidates than a month of job ads.

Mentors are the link that is most often missing. Without someone to validate the result, a student's work remains their own opinion of themselves. With a mentor, it becomes a signal a company can trust.

Partners and development programmes have the most to gain: a mechanism that validates local talent is human-capital infrastructure, not a one-off project.

This is exactly the role BRIDGE takes on: a company publishes a real problem, talent solves it, a mentor and AI review validate the result, and the company gets a signal it can trust. Not another CV, but proof.

What to do right now

1. Pick a real problem from your own work and publish it as a challenge, not as a job ad.
2. Assign a mentor — not to teach, but to validate the result.
3. Measure conversion, not the number of applications: how many of the people who solved the problem actually made it into a role.
4. Make academic work assessable: coursework done for a real company is worth more than a grade.

A talent shortage isn't solved by searching harder. It's solved by making talent visible and validated.

Building that mechanism? Get in touch about a partnership or publish your first challenge on BRIDGE.

Sources

1. ManpowerGroup — 2026 Talent Shortage Survey: 39,063 employers in 41 countries; 72% report difficulty filling roles; most sought-after human qualities: communication/collaboration 39%, professionalism 36%, adaptability 34%. https://www.manpowergroup.com/en/news-releases/news/global-talent-shortage-reaches-turning-point-as-ai-skills-claim-top-spot
2. NACE — 2026 Internship & Co-op Survey: intern-to-full-time conversion rate of 63.1% (2024–25), offer acceptance rate of 88.3%. https://www.naceweb.org/talent-acquisition/internships/intern-conversion-rate-hits-highest-mark-in-five-years
3. CEE Legal Matters — The People Puzzle: Labor Shortages on the Rise in CEE: Moldova — 16% (2021), 18% (2022), 30% (2023); around 10,500 unfilled vacancies in 2023. https://ceelegalmatters.com/print-issues/issue-11-9/the-people-puzzle-labor-shortages-on-the-rise-in-cee/
4. Sun Microsystems / Gartner — mentoring study (cited by Wharton): retention of 72% among mentees and 69% among mentors vs 49% among non-participants; promotions five times as often for mentees and six times as often for mentors. https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/podcast/knowledge-at-wharton-podcast/workplace-loyalties-change-but-the-value-of-mentoring-doesnt/
5. Randstad — employees are 49% less likely to leave a company with a mentoring programme (cited by Forbes Business Council). https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/07/14/driving-employee-retention-through-mentorship/