At a recent conference on improving cooperation between public and private sectors in vocational training and sustainable job creation in Hanoi, Dr Mac Van Tien from the Institute of Vocational Science said that, according to the concept of traditional statistics of Vietnam, in general, trained workers (also known as professional and technical workers) of Vietnam in 2010 accounted for only 15.5 percent of the labour force.
However, if vocationally trained workers include those who trained regularly and frequently, trained under three months (including vocational training for farmers) and vocational training for enterprises, the number of vocationally trained workers currently accounts for 32 percent, and the number of trained workers accounts for 40 percent of the total labour force.
The low rate of skilled labour
According to Mr Tien, the proportion of Vietnam’s trained labour is still not high, but it is not low, either. The trained skills are satisfying the needs of employers better and better. According to companies, 80-85 percent of vocationally trained workers are used in compliance with their training level; 30 percent of them have training level rated as good or better. In some occupations (welding, restaurant service, cooking, ship crew, captain, several jobs in the field of telecommunication…), vocational skills of Vietnamese labour are equal to international standards. Vocationally trained workers are taking part in almost every field of the national economy, taking complicated occupations previously conducted by foreign experts.
However, Mr Tien also said that overall, Vietnamese labour, especially highly skilled labour, still holds a low proportion of the total labour force. Vocational skills still do not meet the requirements of domestic enterprises and foreign labour markets. Teamwork spirit in a multi-cultural environment still sees a large gap against labour forces in regional countries. It has affected productivity, quality and the effects of labour in general. Therefore, improving vocational skills for workers is an urgent requirement that needs special attention from the Vietnamese Government.
Cooperation of three parties is needed
Ms Le Thi Lam Vien, Deputy Head of Membership and Training Committee (VCCI) said that, to improve labour force skills, training should be a coordination of three parties: enterprises, universities and vocational schools. However, currently, that coordination is not tight yet.
According to Mr Mac Van Tien, to make the coordination tight, enterprises must be mainly responsible for training and improving skills for their workers; cooperating with vocational schools in training and signing vocational training contracts. Vocational schools should receive feedback from enterprises and take necessary adjustments, and access labour demand information from enterprises to elaborate and adjust training programmes in accordance with requirement of enterprises.
Mr Luu Hoang from Phu Tho Garment Ltd. said that many enterprises are training their workers effectively but have no rights to issue certificates for them, therefore their workers have many disadvantages when changing workplaces with no vocational training certificates. Mr Hoang proposed solutions to support and encourage private enterprises to participate in vocational training. Specifically, supporting vocational training budget for enterprises so that they could finance staff who take part in vocational training in enterprises; and having appropriate mechanisms for enterprises to issue certificates for trainees.
H.H
Vietnamese
