There are 1,700 vocational training schools in Vietnam which annually provide more than 1.6 million technical workers but the market is still running short of highly skilled workers.

At a recent seminar on improving Vietnam’s vocational training system held by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) and the Scientific Institute for Vocational Training, experts portrayed a gloomy picture of the real situation in the country.

Overlap in training management

1,700 vocational training schools are ideal for many economies but not enough for Vietnam which badly needs high-quality workers in the current process of international integration. Many experts say that Vietnam’s lack of high-quality workers in different levels will negatively impact on its sustainable economic growth.

Basic and advanced vocational training programmes are still far from meeting the urgent requirements of the country when both the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs are assigned the same task.

No doubt, the overlapping management by the two ministries has prevented graduates from colleges from continuing their studies at higher levels.

Unbalanced demand-supply

The Government plans to raise the number of trained workers from 26 percent in 2010 to 50 percent by 2020. The adoption of the Education Law in 2005 and the Vocational Training Law in 2006 has created a firm foundation for building regulations on managing the education and vocational training system in the framework of the national economy.

However, it is not an easy task. The crux of the matter is how to choose a proper training model.

Judging from the results of different training models they sound as if the training centres are better aware of businesses’ urgent requirements for highly-skilled workers. But how to apply the models effectively in the long run is another matter.

In order to maintain its high economic growth, Vietnam needs to develop a contingent of highly skilled workers who can improve labour productivity and produce high value- added products and services.

However, most vocational training centres in Vietnam are yet to pay due attention to the training of human resources when a large number of workers are facing redundancy.

Proper institutions needed

According to a recent CIEM survey in Thai Nguyen and Vinh Phuc provinces, the quality of local human resources is a decisive factor behind every decision on investment projects in the localities.

Nguyen Manh Hai, a research group leader says that State management agencies in charge of vocational training should find a way for the vocational training system to get out of a mess.