“In order to overcome the skills shortage in our ecosystem, we connect SAP Partners and customers with SAP trained and certified students at an early stage.” - Dr. Katharina Schäfer, Global Head of SAP University Alliances
“The ERPsim Game competition is a great opportunity for students to learn SAP skills and connect to the industry. The SAP customers valued seeing the student´s passion, excitement, and willingness to learn as they look for future employees.” - Dr. Vishal Shah, Central Michigan University 
“My advice for SAP Partners and customers is to connect with talents early on. We constantly must understand and implement new technologies. Students are eager to learn about them and through SAP University Alliances they get the skills to implement them. You will meet job-ready talents who can join your workforce.” - Karen Rodriguez, SAP Mentor & Founder at SeInspire
Searching for Talents
Despite our next generation growing up as digital natives, our society is struggling to meet the ever-increasing demand of skilled talent in the information technology and digital skills sector. As of 2022, the global talent shortage reached a 16-year high, meaning that over 75% of companies have reported difficulty finding the talent they need and only 33% of technology jobs worldwide are filled by the necessary skilled labor. From ASUG research we understand that 38% of ASUG SAP customers say a lack of in-house skills and staff shortages are what holds organizat... when trying to keep pace with the speed of change. And 26% of organizations see skills in supporting, developing, and upgrading SAP systems as their number... in working with the technology according to ASUG.
This circumstance entails noticeable consequences not only globally, but right in front of our doorstep. For instance, SAP customers invest in the Intelligent Enterprise for the future, while there is a lack of skilled talent to join the workforce and drive the activities necessary to build this very enterprise.
The challenge for business is clear – how can we respond?
Ensuring business success in the future includes investing not only in the next generation of tech solutions, but also in the next generation of talents.
SAP University Alliances enables the next generation to learn, research, and innovate with business applications for the Intelligent Enterprise. Building a bridge between SAP and the academic world, SAP University Alliances is looking to foster a community of educators and industry partners, who want to support students in developing the necessary skills for their future.
SAP University Alliances:
Our global community for students, universities, schools, educational and industry partners leverage over 2,800 institutions in over 100 countries. Together we stimulate learning around digital technologies, twenty first century skills, and business applications, as well as enable research with universities and organizations tackling industry use cases. In doing so, we aim to inspire students to innovate with SAP and join the SAP ecosystem to make an impact in the world.
SAP partners, customers, and thought leaders are part of our activities by sharing their needs with us and engaging directly with students through projects, industry-academia collaborations, and events. These activities include but aren’t limited to educational engagements such as lectures, certification sponsoring, internships, event engagements, and co-innovation opportunities. Hereby, we do not only tackle the current hiring needs, but also help securing the talent pipeline for the future to ensure a successful tomorrow for the SAP ecosystem.
Exploring How to Be More Future-Proof
Challenges, such as the global talent shortage, often force businesses to quickly adapt or risk getting left behind. At SAP Sapphire, SAP´s global community exchanges about how to become more future-proof. In Orlando, University Alliances connected with customers, SAP Partners, SAP Mentors and academia to discuss how we can all work together in securing a talent pipeline. Dr. Vishal Shah gave the example of the ERPsim Game competition he organized at the Central Michigan University. About 180 students competed in teams to run their most successful company, within a simulation game run on SAP S/4HANA. They were supported by in total 80 mentors from 24 companies
SAP University Alliances at SAP Sapphire (from left to right): maren_meyer, heather.czech, karen.rodrigues2, Dr. Vishal Shah, madivar, chagas.seinspire, dr_karina, colleen.raftery
Who Holds the Talent Holds the Future
We invite SAP Partners and customers to reach out to us to connect with a skilled next generation. Depending on your location and interest, we can connect you to University Alliances member universities and find an engagement model that suits your needs. Please reach out to us via sapnextgen@sap.com or feel free to comment on the blog post below.
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