High Demand for Portuguese Language Experts Highlights Teacher Shortage at Goa University

Challenges Faced by Goa University in Meeting Growing Demand

There is a surge in demand for Portuguese language experts, but Goa University needs more teaching staff in the institution for the language to meet up with the demand. As Assistant Professor at Goa University, Dhruv Usgaonkar mentioned that the department frequently gets enquired by both students and parents about the Bachelor of Arts in Portuguese program. Even the Dean of a local institute has asked about teachers for a Portuguese course for MBA students, along with companies across the country who are looking for individuals who know Portuguese. 

The constant nudges indicate a higher demand for language experts, still the demand seems to be left unmet since Goa University is the only one in South Asia and one of two in Asia offering Portuguese degrees. They have Bachelor's and Master's programs and partner with universities in Porto and Lisbon, offering scholarships for higher studies in Europe. Currently, 13 students are pursuing bachelor's, eight master's degrees, and two are proceeding with their PhDs. With most students enrolled being from northern India, not from Goa, they already knew Portuguese from their families, which nudged them to pursue the language.

“There are opportunities locally, nationally, and internationally for Portuguese language experts,” Usgaonkar says. Locally, there’s a demand for translating legal and business documents, especially historical ones. Multinational companies (MNCs) are always looking for employees who can speak Portuguese because of growing business connections between India and Brazil. All of Goa University's students have landed jobs with big companies like Amazon, IBM, and Accenture further highlighting the scope of the degree. For the creatives and drama lovers out there, there’s also a need for Hindi-Portuguese translators to subtitle Indian TV shows for Brazil.

Despite the demand, not many people are interested in these courses. Only a few of the 20 seats available each year get filled. Ritu Raj, a third-year student from Patna, decided to study Portuguese after seeing her brother get a well-paying job. She hopes to do the same, even though she didn't know Portuguese before and originally studied Physics, Chemistry, and Math in high school.

Former student and assistant professor Franz Schubert Cotta explains that students in Goa often prefer traditional careers like doctors and lawyers and aren’t keen on working outside Goa. In Goa, the main job opportunities are as teachers or translators, but the best jobs are with multinational companies (MNCs), which students from North India have recognized. The department hopes that more students will be interested in the course because of the high demand and the opportunity to get fully paid scholarships from Instituto Camões and Fundação Oriente.

Editor’s Note:

Traditional jobs have established roles and are often preferred by individuals. But recently the job market has seen a rise in demand for unconventional job roles such as Portuguese language experts in India and Skoobuzz would urge individuals to look into these unconventional job roles. The shortage of trained teachers and even a few seats for the course not being filled shows the narrow-sightedness when it comes to career aspirations, despite the role having the opportunities available locally and internationally.