By Wendy Anders

Universities in the U.S. are stepping in the fill needs of foreign companies with branches, plants and offices in Costa Rica to train their workers in specialized technologies and digital innovations, reported Costa Rica’s business daily El Financierio.

From 2015-2016, for example, at least 40 Costa Ricans attended the University of Wisconsin Stout’s specialization program in medical packaging, which is in high demand by several U.S. and other foreign companies with business in Costa Rica. Companies including Boston Scientific, Hologic, Hospira, Kelpac, Panduit, Vention Medical, Covidien, Abbott Vascular, Allergan sent workers, and also students from the National Technical University took advantage the specialized training in life sciences and advanced manufacturing, detailed El Financierio.

Georgia Tech offered a training on cybersecurity which covered cybersecurity fundamentals, security software, authentication and authorization. Employees from Costa Rica’s offices of 3M, CAN Capital, Construction Link, Dell, Emerson, Experian, IBM, INTEL, Oller Abogados and Snap Technology were sent to Georgia for training recently, continued El Financiero.

Rice University in Texas has sent five students for two consecutive years to participate in a multicultural learning initiative with Costa Rican students from the Technical University, the University of Costa Rica, and the Universidad Latina, said El Financiero.

Northwestern University’s Costa Rican Digital Hub has consisted of a series of meetings over the past two years to develop academic collaboration programs between Northwestern Unviersity in Chicago and the digital services industry in Costa Rica. The focus will be on skill development for staff already incorporated in the labor market, reported El Financiero.