This chapter analyses talent availability for Spanish startups and scaleups. It constitutes the eighth of the ten elements of the entrepreneurial ecosystem framework used to assess Spain’s ecosystem. This chapter identifies strengths and areas for improvement, presents an international example for inspiration, maps recent policy developments, and offers recommendations for further progress in the talent element.
Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Diagnostics of Spain
Abstract
One of the enablers of startup and scaleup development is the prevalence of business founders and potential employees with technical and business skills in the ecosystem. The literature shows that entrepreneurship rates are higher in countries where talent pools are larger and better educated (Dimov, 2017[1]; Nguyen, Canh and Thanh, 2021[2]), and that a higher incidence of entrepreneurship education tends to increase startup rates (Martin, McNally and Kay, 2013[3]). Evidence also indicates that startup revenues are higher when staffed with high-skilled professionals who can identify opportunities in markets, and display creativity, problem solving, and capacity to use newer technologies (Botella-Carrubi, Ulrich-Berenguer and Ribeiro Soriano, 2023[4]). Startups and scaleups therefore benefit from ecosystems where the population is well-educated, where there is abundant supply of highly-competent professionals and where there are professionals who have completed tertiary or vocational training in STEM fields (e.g. engineering, biology, etc.) (Botella-Carrubi, Ulrich-Berenguer and Ribeiro Soriano, 2023[4]).
This section provides an assessment of conditions and policies for the Talent element of Spain’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and make recommendations for policy.
Spain performs better on tertiary level than lower-level skills
Spain performs relatively well at the top end of the educational system compared with European OECD countries. The share of people who have attained a tertiary education degree in Spain is equal to the European OECD average level (41%), Spain is above the European average in the incidence of a master’s degree, and only 4 points below the European average in terms of incidence of doctorates in the total population.
Spain also performs well on the diffusion of digital literacy (as measured by internet users) and entrepreneurial capabilities. Over 94% of the Spanish population is an internet user, which makes Spain one of the top 8 countries in Europe on basic digital skills, just behind the United Kingdom and Sweden.
Tertiary-educated talent in Spain is available, and according to some Spanish stakeholders, relatively cheaper, more loyal and easier to retain than technical workers in other ecosystems such as Silicon Valley.
At lower educational levels, however, Spain’s performance is weaker. Mean years of schooling attained by current working age people is relatively low and Spain’s share of adults without at least a secondary education degree is higher than the OECD average (36% to 19%). This reflects lower educational attainment in older cohorts of workers and a relatively high rate of young people leaving the education system, which is about 14% in Spain compared with an OECD average of 9% (OECD, 2023[5]).
Early school-leaving represents a source of talent loss in the ecosystem. Some of these students, even without obtaining a tertiary degree, could have become trained professionals. Over the past decade, Spain has reduced its early school leaving rate, bringing it down from one of the highest levels in Europe in 2010 (over 28%) to 13.9% in 2022. Despite this progress the leaving rate remains above the European average (9.3%), and recent progress does not fully compensate for the human capital losses of the past decades. Early school leavers from ten or twenty years ago are still in the labour force. In addition, only 4 out of 10 adults participate annually in training or reskilling programs.
The total skilled talent pool in Spain today is therefore below its full potential. In particular, many stakeholders consider the average level of English of the Spanish labour force to be insufficient, and that digital skills, financial literacy, critical thinking and creativity should also be improved.
The Spanish Government’s Spain 2050 Report: Foundations and Proposals for a National Long-Term Strategy, has set out three strategic areas for interventions to improve Spain’s educational system and talent pool. They include reducing the share of the population without compulsory secondary education, improving basic competencies (e.g. reading, comprehension and mathematics), and promoting lifelong learning. A recently launched programme in this space is the Digital Vocational Training Plan (Plan FP-Digital), which aims at integrating digital competencies into vocational education, augmenting the supply of trained professionals in highly-demanded functions.
There is need to boost skills in growing sectors
Innovative startups tend to specialise in technology-intensive industries, where scientific, engineering and digital skills are at a premium. However, Spain features a relatively low share (21%) of tertiary education students who graduate in sciences, engineering and ICT disciplines (Figure 10.1). The availability of domestically produced talent in these domains is thus proportionally lower than in other countries, which can affect startups capacity to recruit the type of talent they need. Skills mismatches between the education fields selected by graduates and the skills demands of startups contribute to talent shortages for certain professional profiles.
Note: Data refer to 2022, as of April 2025
Source: OECD, Education at a glance database
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Spain has continued to face a relatively high unemployment rate compared to the OECD average. Nevertheless, around 75% of Spanish firms report difficulties in finding qualified employees. This challenge persists today, with particularly acute talent shortages in fields such as engineering, ICT, customer service, operations and logistics, as well as in emerging areas requiring expertise in artificial intelligence, big data, and digital marketing (IESE Business school, 2022[6]; Manpower Group, 2025[7]). This is linked to a relatively lower incidence (35%) of university graduates in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) compared to other European countries, which reduces the talent pool in these domains.
A similar pattern occurs in vocational training. Relatively few people attain non-tertiary degrees in computer science or other technical fields (Figure 10.2) which are constrained in high-demand sectors. Stakeholders argue that vocational training is not sufficiently connected to the demands of startups and scaleups, which need data scientists and other operational technical profiles who can perform specific tasks even without a university degree. Vocational training does not produce enough of these profiles, and there are few placement services to connect vocational education graduates with job openings in startups. In this space, the Alliance for Vocational Training will help involve employers more in defining training curricula and activities and collecting information about labour market placements to help align vocation training with companies’ requirements.
Note: Data refer to 2022
Source: OECD, Education at a glance database
The rapid expansion of Spain’s startup and digital ecosystem over the past two decades has also intensified talent shortages in technical fields. According to a recent study by the VASS Foundation and the Foundation of the Autonomous University of Madrid, around 193 100 new technical professionals entered the job market over the past three years. Yet, despite a slowdown in hiring in 2023, demand continues to outpace supply. That year alone, nearly 20 000 companies opened more than 55 000 new technical positions, while Spain’s formal education system produces only about 45 000 young technical graduates annually.1
Labour taxes and regulations are constraining of entrepreneurship
Salaries are relatively lower in Spain than in other European OECD countries, which offers an overall competitive advantage to startups and scaleups. However, the average tax burden – including all social contributions less cash benefits as a share of total labour costs (the “tax wedge”) – is higher than the European OECD average (OECD, 2023[5]). Social security contributions and payroll taxes represent about 40% of total labour cost in Spain (Figure 10.3), while the OECD average is below 35% (OECD, 2024[8]). These taxes impact the fixed cost structure of all companies and could be problematic for some startups given the importance of the talent component in their valuation and success. Typically, the quality of a startup’s team is one of the aspects assessed by VC funds to decide where to invest and the tax wedge may affect their ability to attract top talent.
Note: Data refer to 2023
Source: OECD Labour taxation, comparative indicators
Spanish smaller firms are also disincentivised to hire due to relatively rigid labour laws, with strong employee protection and high dismissal costs. Since startups have uncertain revenues, they are wary of hiring workers with permanent contracts that can represent a financial liability if business does not grow as planned. According to the EIB’s investment survey 2023, 57% of Spanish SMEs cite labour market regulations as a major obstacle to investment, a high share in the EU.
The government has introduced two labour market reforms in the past 15 years, one in 2012 and another in 2021, to reduce structural unemployment and duality in the labour market, where some very well protected workers coexist with many precarious workers. According to the OECD and the IMF, the 2012 reform reduced the gap in firing costs between permanent and temporary workers, while the 2021 reform increased employment protection for current temporary workers, and shifted workers from temporary to permanent contracts (OECD, 2023[5]) . While these developments are positive, they do not fully address the overly costly social security contribution nor some of the rigidities in the overly-protected part of the labour market (IMF, 2024[9]). The reforms also did not address the large difference in dismissal costs of permanent versus temporary workers (OECD, 2023[5]).
Entrepreneurial skills are widespread, but entrepreneurship education could be strengthened
A relatively high share of Spanish adults reports that they possess sufficient entrepreneurial capabilities to start a business, with rates being similar to Italy and slightly below the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the EOI Business School (an educational institution managed by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism) points to a scarcity of entrepreneurial skills among Spanish university graduates, referring to competencies including creativity, innovation, risk-taking, and ability to plan and manage projects. This partly reflects the limited scope of business education. The 2023 Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Student’s Survey (GUESSS) found that over 68% of university students in Spain have never attended entrepreneurship courses (Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESS)), 2024[10]). As mentioned in the Culture section, entrepreneurial education modules could be offered at different levels of education, to build at the same time entrepreneurial skills while broadening entrepreneurial mentality in the Spanish society.
To boost entrepreneurship in education, the Education Law 2/2006 and Education Law 3/2020 provide legal settings for defining entrepreneurship in education and suggest an entrepreneurship syllabus in training curricula, focusing on primary, secondary and vocational education. However, the national government can only provide general guidelines and frameworks, and responsibility for directly implementing education reforms is with the autonomous regions. Regarding vocation education, the Entrepreneurship Classrooms initiative has recently been launched to improve entrepreneurial soft skills across vocational education graduates in all disciplines and create connections between schools, firms and other institutions to facilitate the creation of new businesses from VET graduates. Programmes have also been rolled out to boost entrepreneurship education in secondary schools, including Empresa Joven Europea (EJE), which trains students to create mini-companies (Bernal-Guerrero et al., 2024[11]), and Entrepreneurial Potential in Adolescents (PEIEO), which aims at building specific competences among younger students including creativity, personal control, goal orientation, leadership and intuition for problem solving (Martín-Gutiérrez et al., 2025[12]), as well as many regional initiatives.
Overall, however, entrepreneurial education remains optional, with limited human and financial resources committed, and varying outcomes across regions and implementing institutions. More consistency, better co-ordination and structural change in education curricula could help to equip future cohorts of Spanish people with sharper entrepreneurial skills from a young age.
The Spanish Escuela de Organisation Industrial (EOI), with the support of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) has created multiple programmes to support entrepreneurship through entrepreneurial skills training in Spain.
The Coworking Programme is a training programme for aspiring entrepreneurs that combines ad-hoc mentoring, workspace and networking activities to boost early-stage entrepreneurship projects.
The European Coworking Programme is an extension of the Coworking Programme, allowing entrepreneurs to gain international experience at an entrepreneurship or innovation centre located in an EU member state for several weeks.
Acelera Startups offers entrepreneurship training across the country using existing entrepreneur networks. With an overall budget of EUR 43 million, it supports 50 business accelerators distributed by geography and sector, with the goal of training 6 100 entrepreneurs.
Generación Digital offers digital skills training in the context of the Digital Skills National Plan. With a budget of EUR 356 million, a first component aims to train 94 530 SME managers to empower them to lead the digital transformation of SMEs, and a second component aims at training 33 000 experts and SME employees on digital skills to improve the availability of specialised talent for the digital transformation.
Spain is attracting international entrepreneurial talent
Talent shortages in technology-driven industries have led some startups to look to attract foreign professionals to fill their gaps. The Spanish government has introduced different measures to facilitate the attraction of foreign high-skilled professionals, especially in fields such as ICT.
In 2013, Law 14/2013 introduced new types of visas: the Investor Visa (so-called “Golden Visa”), the Entrepreneur Visa, the Highly Skilled Professional visa, and the Intra-Company Visa. It also set the criteria in terms of education and work experience to be considered as a highly qualified professional, and established the complementarity of authorisation of entry and residence for highly qualified professionals with the EU Blue Card.
In 2022, the Law 28/2022 (Startup Law) introduced additional measures to attract foreign investors and talent. This includes a tax advantage for natural persons who relocate to Spain and a reform of Law 14/2013 allowing eligible professionals (entrepreneurs, investors and high-qualified professionals) to obtain Spanish residence for three years, with a two-year renewal option, and simplified procedure for obtaining the visa. In addition, a visa for international teleworkers aims at attracting foreign talent to live in Spain while continuing working for a foreign employer. Teleworkers can receive a one-year residence visa or a three-year residence authorisation, giving them the right to work and apply to open vacancies in Spain. These measures have been inspired by Estonia’s Startup Visa and e-Residency system (Box 10.2) which still represents a reference for most European countries as they adopt similar arrangements.
In addition, in 2022, ICEX (the Spanish agency for exports and investments) launched Spain-Latam Scale-Up with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to invest in Latin American startups, among which about 50 relocate to Spain every year.
Since 2014, the total inflow of foreign population in Spain grew from about 265 000 people in 2014, to over 1.1 million in 2022 (OECD, 2024[13]). While it is hard to distinguish the effect of the various reforms and incentives introduced in this period from international migration trends, the reforms have certainly created more favourable conditions for certain types of immigration. For instance, the total number of people who entered Spain with an authorization issued based on Law 14/2013 grew from about 3 000 in 2014 to almost 98 000 in 20232. These individuals entered the Spanish labour market with a specific type of permit and in principle should include only highly skilled professionals.
Various measures could be taken to build on these positive developments. Firstly, according to Spanish stakeholders, there are still some bureaucratic or regulatory barriers to hiring international talent. Despite recent improvements, Spanish entrepreneurs still consider the visa issuing process for highly skilled workers as too slow, with several steps and bureaucratic delays before startups can onboard needed employees. In principle, Spanish startups could access foreign talent to fill skills gaps by taking on remote workers rather than going through a visa process to hire in Spain. However, there are also regulatory barriers in this case. There are no streamlined pathways to obtain “remote work visas”, and startups must set up a branch abroad to hire foreign workers under a local contract. Overall, there is scope to ease Spain’s legal framework for hiring international talent to reach the level of the most startup-friendly countries such as Estonia.
Secondly, salaries in Spain are lower than in other countries for similar positions. According to Glassdoor, in February 2025, software developers’ average salary in Madrid was between EUR 26 000 and EUR 43 000 EUR per year, compared with between EUR 48 000 and EUR 76 000 in London, and between EUR 42 000 and EUR 55 000 in Paris. Although cost of living varies across these cities, these are significant differences, which not only discourage foreign professionals to move to Spain but also cause Spanish talent to move abroad. The number of Spanish people who left the country has increased recently, mainly to France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Among them there are both foreign-born and Spanish native-born. Foreign-born tend to be older and less well educated, but Spanish-born individuals are mostly highly educated. For example, about 56% of Spanish-born individuals who have entered France in the past ten years had a tertiary qualification (Capote Lama, López Pereiro and Fernández Suárez, n.d.[14]).
For startups, the Startup Law has attempted to attract foreign talent through fiscal incentives on startup employees’ stock options. Although this has been an important step forward, there is strong competition across countries on offering better conditions to remuneration from stock options. For example, France and the Netherlands have recently increased the attractiveness of stock option plans, and the conditions offered in the US or the UK remain significantly more attractive than those in Spain. For instance, in Spain, only employees of ENISA-certified startups can benefit from fiscal incentives on stock options, and stock options “gains” are taxed as income from work, rather than as equity gains (NordicHQ, 2024[15]). There is scope to review and potentially revise some of these conditions in an effort to increase the competitiveness of Spanish startups and scaleups in attracting foreign talent.
Description
Since 2017, Estonia offers startup visas and related work permits to accelerate and simplify application procedures for foreigners to create or work in startups in Estonia.
It was the first country to offer e-Residency (a government-issued digital identity and status) to foreigners to enable them to access to the country’s e-services from abroad. To obtain an e-Residency, the applicant must submit a CV, motivation, passport and digital photo online, pay a small fee, and select a pick-up point in over 50 cities worldwide where the applicant’s identity is checked. This allows the visa to be registered and validated without travelling to Estonia.
Estonia has also created the Startup Visa programme, to allow entrepreneurs who plan to establish a startup in Estonia to opt for a Startup Visa instead of a traditional work permit. A Startup Visa has a dedicated application track which allows a faster visa issuance compared to a standard work permit. Thanks to the e-Residency programme, it is possible to apply and obtain a Startup visa remotely, before entering the country. This type of visa allows founders to live in Estonia and develop their business for up to 12 months, with possibilities of extension, until a Temporary Residence Permit (TRP) is obtained.
To be eligible to obtain a Startup Visa the company must be innovative, scalable, and technology driven. The business idea is evaluated and approved by the Estonian Startup Committee, which consists of experts from the local startup ecosystem.
The programme has a dedicated provision for skilled professionals hired by a startup established in Estonia. Estonia has introduced an annual immigration quota for non-EU nationals, but it does not apply to startups (founders and their employees), IT specialists, and top-level specialists whose monthly income is at least equal to double the Estonian average wage. To obtain visas for workers hired with a contract of 1 year or less, the employer startup can use the Short-Term Employment Registration (STR). Through this process, workers can obtain a visa within a few days, and in some cases in just one business day. With this short-term visa status, employers must offer a salary that is at least Estonia’s average wage.
There is also a Long-Term Residence option to hire foreign workers by applying to the Temporary Residence Permit. In this case, workers can obtain a visa permit valid for more than one year. This process takes a bit longer (approximately two months), but it is still faster than regular work permit application. The application must be approved by the Estonian Startup Committee. The applicant must also provide proof of qualifications and an employment contract to the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board.
Success factors
Key to the success of the Estonian programme has been the commitment of the government to establish a system that facilitates immigration while respecting security and border control measures. To make this possible, Estonia has: 1. Organised a significant global network of official points where the identity of founders and workers can be validated, and fingerprints can be taken. 2. Invested heavily in digital e-government infrastructure to allow the transmission of information across government departments, to submit, scan and validate documents and application forms, and to cross-reference applicants’ data with international databases (e.g. Interpol), if needed. 3. Created ad-hoc visa categories and procedures for individuals with desired skills and competences. 4. Complemented simplification of administrative processes with a triple helix approach to talent retention in the labour market.
Lessons for Spain
One of the key bottlenecks to issuing visas is the validation of the identity of the applicant. In Spain, since 2013, many administrative procedures have been digitalised and visa processes for foreign highly skilled individuals who want to move to Spain have been simplified. However, identity verification still takes place in Spain. Establishing a network of pick-up points in several cities globally can facilitate visa applications from abroad, allowing foreign workers to prepare their move to Spain from their country of origin. In addition, integrating digital systems with the possibility of cross-referencing databases from different ministries, institutions and international organisations could further speed up processes, minimise document submission and strengthen security. Further, a more comprehensive talent attraction and retention approach could be taken accompanying visa processes with labour market policies that improve Spain as an appealing destination to work and do business.
Sources: investinestonia (National Policies for International Talent Attraction and Retention in Estonia)
Talent availability in Spain has been subject to different trends. On the one hand, the demand for skilled labour has increased, especially in specific technical domains, in parallel with the development of the Spanish economy and the take-off of its entrepreneurial ecosystem. Internationalisation of talent and remote work opportunities have also increased the demand for specific high-skills professions that can be performed remotely, relevant to startup up development, such as IT engineers and applications developers. On the other hand, the supply of skilled labour in technical domains has increased in Spain, sourcing both from the domestic education system and through immigration, but not at the same pace as the demand for skills by startups. As a result, talent shortages have become a relevant bottleneck for further development of the Spanish startup ecosystem.
Against this backdrop, the following policy actions are recommended to improve the Talent element of Spain’s entrepreneurial ecosystem:
Improve domestic supply of technical professionals by encouraging students to pursue technical programmes both in tertiary and vocational education.
Reduce the labour tax wedge and labour regulations affecting the ability of startups and scaleups to employ high-skilled workers.
Further ease startups’ access to foreign talent through high-skilled professionals visa applications, establishing a network of pick-up points in several cities globally to facilitate visa applications from abroad.
Maintain alignment of fiscal incentives stock options with other countries by adapting thresholds and accessibility.
References
[11] Bernal-Guerrero, A. et al. (2024), “Entrepreneurial Potential in Secondary School Students. An Exploratory Evaluation”, Sage Open, Vol. 14/2, https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241256780.
[4] Botella-Carrubi, D., K. Ulrich-Berenguer and D. Ribeiro Soriano (2023), “What entrepreneurial skills are the key to startup finance performance?”, Venture Capital, https://doi.org/10.1080/13691066.2023.2240019.
[14] Capote Lama, A., S. López Pereiro and L. Fernández Suárez (n.d.), A new wave of Spanish emigration to France and the United Kingdom: who are the emigrants and why are they moving?.
[1] Dimov, D. (2017), “Towards a qualitative understanding of human capital in entrepreneurship research”, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-01-2016-0016.
[10] Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESS)) (2024), “Intenciones de carreras, espíritu emprendedor e iniciativas empresariales de los estudiantes universitarios 2023-2024”.
[6] IESE Business school (2022), Changes in the portfolio of skills needed by Spanish companies following COVID-19.
[9] IMF (2024), Assessment of the Effects of Spain’s 2021 Labor Market Reform.
[7] Manpower Group (2025), Escasez de talento 2025.
[3] Martin, B., J. McNally and M. Kay (2013), “Examining the formation of human capital in entrepreneurship: A meta-analysis of entrepreneurship education outcomes”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 28/2, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2012.03.002.
[12] Martín-Gutiérrez, Á. et al. (2025), “Effectiveness of the PElEO program to develop the entrepreneurial potential of Spanish students in Secondary Education and Vocational Training”, Social Sciences & Humanities Open, Vol. 11, p. 101365, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2025.101365.
[2] Nguyen, B., N. Canh and S. Thanh (2021), “Institutions, Human Capital and Entrepreneurship Density”, Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Vol. 12/3, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-020-00666-w.
[15] NordicHQ (2024), “Startup Employee Stock Options - Country Comparison”, https://www.nordichq.com/startup-employee-stock-options-country-comparison/.
[13] OECD (2024), International Migration Outlook 2024.
[8] OECD (2024), Taxing Wages - Tax and gender through the lens of the second earner.
[5] OECD (2023), OECD Economic Survey: Spain 2023.
← 1. Source: https://vasscompany.com/apac/en/about-us/newsroom/VI-Employability-and-Talent-Digital-Study/
← 2. Source: Ministerio de Inclusion, Seguriad Social, y Migraciones Infografías OPI