More skills needed for Vietnam's labour force

Vocational training students at a technical school in HCM City. (Photo: VNA)

Quynh said currently, the quality of Vietnam’s labour resources was still very low, reaching only 46 out of 100 points, ranking it number 103 in the world and far behind the ASEAN-4 group.

The country’s vocational education and training sector was equipping learners with fundamental theoretical knowledge but was lacking in skills related to specific occupations, she said.

Do Thi Thuy Huong, a member of the Vietnam E-Business Association said that low labour costs and natural resources would no longer be an advantage for Vietnamese electronic businesses moving forward.

Businesses instead would require highly skilled workers and vocational education and training institutions needed to develop a programme of equipping workers with "soft” skills such as loyalty, responsibility, and communication, Huong said.

In May 2020, the Prime Minister issued a directive on promoting the development of skilled human resources that would contribute to improving labour productivity and increasing national competitiveness.

Localities were tasked with effectively implementing mechanisms and policies to develop vocational education and human resources. The directive said they should focus on undergoing digital transformations including developing online training.

Regular training and retraining of the workforce were also recommended. It was recommended that learners get professional, digital, and entrepreneurship skills as well as in foreign languages.

Vietnam has set the targets that the vocational education sector will reach the level of ASEAN-4 countries of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines by 2030 and by 2045 reach the level of G20 countries./.

VNA