Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam’s labour market is in desperate need ofhigh-qualified and skilled workers, experts have said.

The local labour market has long faced a paradox of many trained labourersbeing unable to find suitable jobs while businesses dealt with a labourshortage, as graduates often had to be retrained to be competent.

Vietnam is also one of the countries most heavily influenced by the FourthIndustrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), with many jobs set to become obsolete andmany other new ones to appear.

Facing the trend of automation, Vietnamese workers must be trained to meet jobrequirements in this new situation.

According to Tran Tuan Anh, former vice director of Ho Chi Minh City’s HumanResource Forecast and Labour Market Information Centre, businesses' demand forworkers of all types would increase by 14.5 percent by 2025.

The demand for average-skilled jobs would generally rise at the fastest rate ofabout 28 percent while skilled workers would be at 13 percent, he told onlinenewspaper baotintuc.vn.

The labour market in HCM City was always busy, he said.

“Only in the first quarter this year, businesses in HCM City still needed65,430 employees although it was a time of difficulties for all economicsectors due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

In the second quarter, businesses would need about 47,000 workers in commerce,information technology, administration, health care, consulting service andcustomer care, he said.

The demand for trained labourers accounted for 81 percent of the total.

According to human resource experts, skilled and high-qualified human resourceshave not yet met labour market demand.

Many graduates were not well equipped with expertise, soft skills and foreignlanguages so they could not find jobs.

“In order to overcome the situation, training cooperation among education institutionsand businesses should be enhanced to supply high-qualified human resourcemeeting businesses’ requirement as well as increase the prestige of educationalinstitutions,” said Nguyen Hoan Hao, a lecture of HCM City’s PedagogicalUniversity.

Businesses would decide how many qualified and capable employees they needevery year while schools would be responsible for training students to thefirms' requirements, said Hao.

Nguyen Hong Quang, vice president of C.T Group, said that close relations betweenschools and businesses via training courses and internship programmes wouldhelp employers find suitable employees.

HCM City’s University of Economics has long had ties with businesses viaworkshops for evaluating students’ suitability for businesses’ needs, seminarson improving training courses, career festivals, and internship programmes.

Since 2017, the percentage of newly-graduated students from the university whofound jobs immediately after their studies has been 93.4 percent.

“After graduating, the students often looked for jobs from business recruitmentads, career fairs or job promotion centres,” said Dr Dinh Cong Khai, a lecturerof HCM City’s Economics University.

“Knowledge and skills are important requirements to recruiters,” said Khai.

“Lack of soft skills such as communication, time management and teamwork werereasons that made graduates fail to find jobs,” he said.

Cao Van Duong, an employee of KPMG Ltd Co Vietnam, said to meet the demands ofthe labour market, graduates must be strong in their expertise.

“Technology could change rapidly but basic knowledge of a professional is asolid foundation for employees to quickly grasp new knowledge in their workingenvironment,” Duong said.

Additionally, recruiters now focused on soft skills such as communicationskills, time management, teamwork, crisis management and personal life balance,he added./.