“What we have here is a survey of the market, what the job offers are, therefore which are the sectors and professions with the most employability”, stated the founder of the myMentor platform, Inês Menezes, as part of the presentation of the employment map of Lisbon, which took place at the National Library.

Accessible online, free of charge, the myMentor platform began to be developed in December 2022 and was made available to the public, with job opportunities across the country, through aggregated information from eight portals (soon it will also be linked to LinkedIn), with the Lisbon employment map also intended to be created in other Portuguese municipalities.

After Lisbon, the project will reach Fundão, the district of Castelo Branco, and the 17 municipalities of the Porto Metropolitan Area, with the expectation that within a year there will be “an employment map of the country, with all municipalities represented”.

According to the founder of the myMentor platform, the job map identifies the skills most required by the labour market, in each activity, by region and by municipality, to help bridge the gap that exists between labour market needs and skills.

Inês Menezes said that the tool can be useful “not only for those looking to make decisions about their future in professional or academic terms but also for those who guide the training offer”.

“Anyone who wants to look for a job will find a wealth of information, gathered and worked on by artificial intelligence algorithms”, highlighting the indication of job offers, professions with the most job offers, most sought-after skills, suggested training courses and evolution of trends.

With the motto that “building a future is within everyone’s reach”, the myMentor platform focuses on a lifelong training mentality to respond to the skills that the job market is looking for.

“The better training, probably the better salaries”, pointed out Inês Menezes, noting that salary payments below the European average are one of the country's main problems, in addition to high taxes, low qualifications and low productivity.

Based on data from the Lisbon employment map, the professions at the top of job offers in the last six months are software programmers (4,991 offers), sales representatives (3,098 offers), secretaries, administrative and executive (2,819 offers), administrative and service directors (1,780 offers), store salespeople (1,692 offers), call centre employees (1,635 offers), accountants (1,457 offers) and advertising and marketing specialists (1,322 offers).

In the presentation, the municipal director of Economy and Innovation at Lisbon City Council (CML), Margarida Figueiredo, highlighted the importance of the tool to “reduce the 'gap' [disparity] between job demand and job offer”, to meet training needs, 'upskilling' [acquire new skills] or 'reskilling' [training for a new professional area], and “adaptation of skills to job market demand”.

The most requested skills are English, communication, interaction and emotional intelligence, said Margarida Figueiredo, noting that “sometimes the training entities themselves don't have this idea”.

“This platform is a great asset for everyone”, considered the municipal director of Economy and Innovation, pointing out the changes in the job market with technological evolution, globalisation and international instability due to wars.