A survey on Vietnamese human resources showed that only 3% of business cooperated on training programmes with Vietnamese universities.
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| Fluency in English a sharp advantage |
The survey, released at meeting in Hanoi, on November 6, focused on the quality of human resources within the country, and was jointly conducted by EduViet Corporation, the Vietnam Young Business Association and VinaTest, an independent test organisation.
The results of the survey indicated that many local businesses hesitated to recruit "qualified" graduates from Vietnamese schools for fear of having to retrain them.
Dr. Le Quan, Chairman of EduViet, said that graduates who are fluent in English can find jobs with twice the pay, and much more easily, than those without.
He added, though, that only about 5% of graduates can manage to get an IELTS score of more than 5.5. "Schools are still not very good at focusing on practical career paths, and giving students the skills they will need for their futures. High marks don\'t necessarily mean that a student is ready for the workforce," he said.
Tran Thi Tuyet from the University of Languages and International, a faculty of the Vietnam National University-Hanoi, said, currently that universities have the problem that they are still required to teach mandatory curriculum, which often have no practical applications.
Quan noted, “Universities are unable to offer comprehensive skill training for students without cooperation from bussinesses."
The results of the survey also suggested that the low cost of wages in Vietnam has led to low productivity from the Vietnamese workforce. At the same time, salary demands are on the rise.
Another problem, according to several attendees of the meeting, is that Vietnamese companies tend to be mostly run by families. This, they said, also discourages the recruitment of qualified candidates.