Seeking Human Resource for IT Industry

 The strong investment of companies and multi-national corporations in information and technology (IT) sector in Vietnam over the past time showed that IT is one of the key industries in the cause of construction and development of the country. However, such huge investment will need a large number of IT workers. The current fact indicates that this is a difficult-to-solve problem for enterprises which are seeking for employees.

According to the statistics of the HCM City Computing Association (HCA), a total of 390 universities and colleges in the country are providing training programmes related to IT sector, 43 universities higher than that of last year. In which, the recruitment has selected 50,000 students for IT training this year, an increase of over 11,000 students compared to the figure of last year. The number of IT graduates annually is increasing, which will partly meet the demand for IT human resource in the labour market. In fact, there are few graduates who can work right after they are employed. A majority of enterprises must re-train their employees after recruitment. 

 

The data from the HCM City Department of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs showed that IT training units in Ho Chi Minh City had trained 213,000 students during the period of 2001 – 2007, but only 20,100 people of them, or 9.4 per cent, have been employable. In which, 87 per cent of them, or 13,000 – 15,000 graduates from universities have been most employable, followed by 3,300 – 18,000 graduates from colleges, or 18 per cent. The lowest employment rate belongs to technician training units which train 180,000 graduates, but only 3,800 of them, or 2 per cent, have been working in IT sector.

 

The main cause of the above situation is the quality of IT human resource, particularly new graduates in HCM City, who have many weaknesses. One of their weaknesses is the serious lack of professional knowledge. The survey of Quang Trung Software Company showed that up to 46 per cent of candidates applying in his firm lack professional knowledge. Another weak point is that these graduates have weak command of foreign language, while enterprises often need IT workers who are good at foreign language in order to help them quickly access advance technology from other countries. Therefore, about 40 per cent of graduates in IT sector seeking for jobs are neglected due to their shortage of foreign language skills. In addition, the lack of creativeness and group working skill has also made new graduates fail to meet the demand of employers.

 

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Minh Hong said that Vietnam’s strategies to develop IT sector will focus on two guidelines: developing qualified and high-quality IT human resource is a breakthrough, and quickly occupying domestic market in order to gradually expand to regional and global markets is a decisive phase.

 

However, to make a breakthrough in developing high-quality IT human resource is not an easy task. If the quality of regular training system is not improved, the IT industry of Vietnam will find hard to solve the problem of the shortage of human resource meeting the standards. In other point of view, Mr Pham Tan Cong, general secretary of VINASA, said that Vietnam should basically change training process and quality in order to train IT manpower with international quality. On the other hands, Cong said the nation should soon build up an IT manpower assessment standard system in line with international manpower standard system.

 

The construction of a common standard system will allow training units and employers to have firm ground to assess the quality of labour, then enterprises can have suitable labour distribution, along with proper salary table for workers at different level. The system will also help Vietnam make a connection with international market when Vietnam’s IT workers are sent overseas.

 

According to Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, Vietnam has great potential to cooperate with foreign partners in IT sector, so the country should take advantage of this opportunity to attract more and more foreign investors who can jointly participate into training domestic human resource. “The IT market and opportunities for foreign investment in Vietnam is very great, so the connection between demand and supply, and the coalition between enterprises and universities in training IT manpower at this time is very essential”, Deputy PM asserted.

 

In order to create good cooperation between enterprises and universities, Mr Phi Anh Tuan, director of CMC Group’s South branch, suggested that universities and colleges should take constructive opinions from enterprises and experts in big companies to build up curriculum suitable with the work demand. Internship duration should be extended because the current duration is too short, so students can not get accustomed to the work before returning to their schools. “Enterprises should contribute to training students in the final six months, so that they can be employable after graduating”, Mr Chu Tien Dung, director of Quang Trung Software Centre agreed.

 

Besides, Huynh Thanh Tien, director of Business Development Department of the Asia Software Co. said in order to improve the quality of human resource in IT sector, it is necessary to improve the skills of IT students for foreign language by tightening the requirements in university entrance exam and graduation exam. A framework of foreign language skill should be built up in line with the level of computing profession.

 

In other viewpoint, Ha Van Luom, deputy general director of Global Cybersoft Company, said each university should intensify its training for one certain skill, so that they can meet the demand of enterprises in need of workers with that skill.

 

Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Tran Duc Lai noted that if the above measures are carried out, and when the cooperation between enterprises and universities are tightened, the IT human resource of Vietnam will surely meet both quality and quantity in the future.