Vietnam has more than 100,000 unemployed university students each year and up to 60 per cent of university graduates take jobs unrelated to their majors, according to a report by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs last year. Despite the large number of graduates, last year, up to 41 per cent of employers have failed to recruit a sufficient number of qualified candidates, showing a mismatch between the levels of skills and employers' demand.

The lack of labour resources is not only of university students who have degrees and certificates, but also those trained by international standard programmes, fully equipped with the knowledge and skills to meet job requirements in a global environment, and able to compete with workers from other countries.

To address this issue, Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training will continue its National Foreign Language Project, to ensure all students learn English from first grade and the language skills of nearly 1.2 million teachers are enhanced. The government also encourages the mobilisation of local and foreign investment into the private education sector, and expansion of international education organisations and universities in Vietnam.

To address the shortage of high-quality human resources, many Vietnamese enterprises have engaged with universities, colleges, and intermediate schools to train and recruit workers according to their requirements. Many also provide scholarships for outstanding university students. 

Some experts also suggested Vietnam prioritise training its workforce with in-demand skills such as problem-solving, customer service and leadership; and a revolution in IT education to build a future-ready IT labour force.

Read further analysis at https://vietnamnet.vn//en/feature/releasing-potential-of-quality-labour-590937.html#inner-article

Comments from Lien Ta, Senior Education Services Manager:

Now is a crucial time to think about how to position the role of UK education and UK institutions in preparing Vietnamese students to become a high-quality human resource in key industrial areas. Beyond the promotion of education programmes, we also need to determine how these programmes will equip Vietnamese students with critical soft skills. The New Graduate Route will become very valuable to Vietnamese students, therefore it needs to be strongly promoted by UK institutions to Vietnamese students, emphasizing the benefits Vietnamese students will gain in terms of improving soft skills and work experience to evolve into a dynamic source of high-quality human resources for Vietnam when returning home.

The British Council Vietnam is planning to run a media campaign in 2020 showcasing the benefits of UK education through testimonials from Vietnamese student ambassadors and alumni of different UK institutions. If you have appealing stories from your Vietnamese students or want to bring your Vietnamese students/alumni on board to engage with prospective students, don't hesitate to contact me at lien.ta@britishcouncil.org.vn. We'd love to hear from you and discuss how to make the best use of your students' stories.