Supporting industry crying out for high-quality human resources
Supporting industry crying out for high-quality human resources
Vietnam’s supporting industry is entering a recovery period after a stagnation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, like many other industries, the shortage of human resources, especially those of high-quality is now a huge challenge for the country.
Concerns about labor shortage
At a recent webinar on human resources in the manufacturing industry, Vo Thi Bich Thuy from the ManpowerGroup Vietnam said that most of manufacturing enterprises are having problems with hiring workers, hampering their ability to fulfill orders. The fourth wave of Covid-19 that hit Vietnam starting in April has further exacerbated the situation.
In addition to labor shortages in general, many supporting industry enterprises are in dire need of highly-skilled human resources to improve productivity. According to a survey by Ho Chi Minh City’s Human Resources Forecast and Labour Market Information (FALMI) Center in the third quarter of 2021, out of a total of more than 43,000 workers looking for jobs, just over 38 percent of applicants had primary, intermediate and college degrees.
Vietnam’s supporting industry is facing a shortage of high-quality human resources |
Shortage of high-quality human resources has been plaguing the supporting industry for many years. Vice President of the Vietnam Association for Supporting Industries Do Thi Thuy Huong said most electronic businesses have to retrain their personnel after recruitment, taking at least two to four weeks of specialized training before they are allowed to practice on production lines. Senior technicians are sent abroad for training or provided with additional training on the job.
Solving the human resources shortage
In the long term, to meet the growth of the supporting industry, the labor force quality needs to be improved to attract investors. More immediate solutions to the human resources shortage to restore production disrupted by the pandemic require the involvement of many ministries and sectors, and especially active cooperation between training institutions and businesses.
Le Nguyen Duy Oanh, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Center of Supporting Industries Development (CSID) confirmed that her agency will continue to implement training activities with experts from SCORE project to train human resources at factories and conduct assessments of the needs of small and medium-sized supporting industry enterprises. In addition, the CSID will deploy a training program for technical human resources for SMEs in the mold engineering industry.
Schools run by the Ministry of Industry and Trade are also accelerating high-quality human resource training to promptly supply labor force for supporting industry enterprises. Nguyen Quoc Van, Head of the Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Cao Thang Technical College said training associated with industry demand is a consistent policy. Close cooperation with more than 200 enterprises has enabled adapted and improved training programs and provided graduates for hundreds of enterprises.
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Vietnamese supporting industry enterprises have been presented with great opportunities to participate in the global value chain, but they will not be able to take advantage of these unless they promptly address the dire need for qualified human resources. |
