HCM City (VNA) - Vietnam has abundant labour resources but manyenterprises in the country said they cannot recruit a sufficient number ofskilled workers, and as a result, cannot expand production activities. 

Nguyen Phuong Mai, managing director of NavigosSearch, which offers consulting and aptitude tests, said there was a mismatchbetween the level of skills and demand from employers “because of a shortage ofquality candidates”.

A report from theNavigos Group, which owns Navigos Search and VietnamWorks, an onlinerecruitment portal, showed that 41 percent of employers had not been able torecruit a sufficient number of qualified candidates.

In the first quarter ofthe year, the number of candidates seeking jobs rose by 40 percent, compared tothe same period last year.

One of the reasons wasmore foreign direct invested enterprises have been set up in Vietnam in recentyears, according to Mai.

The conversion trendtowards the fourth industrial revolution in different fields, especially inmanufacturing and IT, has created many new occupations in the job market,including engineers for data analysis and artificial intelligence andblockchain applications.

“The appearance of newoccupations has caused Vietnamese to lag behind employers’ demands,” Mai said.

Chris Harvey, CEO of ITviec.com, an IT recruiter in Vietnam, said:"According to our latest surveys, many tech employers find it challengingto recruit IT staff who have an appropriate level of English as well asproblem-solving skills. Meanwhile, a significant number of IT engineers havealso mentioned that a low level of English proficiency and limited experiencehas caused them to be unqualified for the jobs."

Tran Van Hung, of the VietnamNational University of Forestry, told the Vietnam News Agency that manycompanies in HCM City still could not recruit enough qualified candidates.

Many experts areconcerned about the labour-skills shortage because the city has poured a lot ofmoney into high-tech industries.

Professor Vu Dinh Thanh,Rector of HCM City University of Technology, said that many universities,colleges and vocational schools were offering the same training courses and notdividing them into different training levels to meet the employers’ differentdemands.

Dr Le Kim Dung, Directorof the Department of Employment under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, andSocial Affairs, said the database on the employment market was not complete,and remained unconnected between provinces and cities.

This has causedinadequate analysis and forecasts about the labour market, affectingsocio-economic policies, he added.

Dung said the Governmentshould enhance public-private partnerships and carry out projects related tothe labour market.

Mai of Navigos Searchsaid the Government should regularly provide analysis and forecast of markettrends and develop more policies to help enterprises improve their humanresources.

On the other hand,companies should provide information about their demands to schools to improvethe quality and effectiveness of training, she said, adding that they shouldalso have better brand name strategies.

Universities, collegesand vocational schools should update training programmes toward enterprises’ realdemands, Mai added.

They should also workwith companies to offer their students soft skills and creative thinkingskills, she said.    

Harvey of ITviec.comsaid that students should spend time improving their English skills and gainpractical experience even before graduation.-VNA