A plug in the brain drain

Twenty companies have partnered up with Microsoft Dynamics to offer IT company management solutions (ERP and CRM) for the problem of the brain drain and specialist emigration.

The Microsoft Dynamics Partner Academy has been established to achieve this goal. "We want to show that work in the sector is profitable and provides development opportunities in Poland," stated Marcin Jankowski from Microsoft Dynamics. He explains that the Academy will serve as an information center where employers can meet face-to-face with potential employees who, in turn, can count on specialist training, provided they decide to work in Poland.

The Academy's founders claim that Poland doesn't have to be a source of migrants, but that it can be a pool for workers from the East. Its goal is to work out a recruiting system of workers from the former Soviet Union and new EU members. "We will welcome people educated in IT technology," Jankowski declared.

Moreover, Dr Paweł Kaczmarczyk from Warsaw University's Center for Migration Research claims that migration can have further positive effects. "It motivates people in the country to pursue education," he said. "It is necessary to provide them with development and growth opportunities."

Kaczmarczyk adds that migration cannot be avoided in a democratic state and that all the state can do is make sure its citizens have the best possible conditions at home for the benefit "not only of potential migrants but society as a whole."

Jankowski promises that if the project is successful, another division of Microsoft - along with more than 300 partner companies - will follow in the Academy's footsteps. "If we are successful, it will mean jobs for thousands of people," said Jankowski.