VietNamNet Bridge – In 2005-2009, the number of universities and junior colleges increased by two folds, while the number of vocational schools decreased. The number of university students is three times bigger than the number of vocational school students.

Figures can talk

According to the report released by the General Statistics Office (GSO),on September 1, 2009, 76.5 percent of the population aged 15 years or older were working. However, only 17.6 percent of workers once experienced training courses, and 5.2 percent of them graduated universities.

Also according to GSO, in 2005, Vietnam had 277 universities and junior colleges and 284 vocational schools. The figures rose to 403 and 282, respectively, in 2009. In the same year, Vietnam had 1.8 million university and junior college students, and 699,700 vocational school students.

According to the General Vocational Training Department, in 2009, Vietnam had 684 vocational training centers and about 1000 other vocational training establishments with 1,420,000 students learning trades at the primary level or following less-than-three-month training courses.

Meanwhile, the graduates from the primary-level training courses were only capable to take simple jobs, and they cannot be the labor force which can meet the high requirements in the industrialization and modernization process.

According to the World Bank, Vietnam gets 3.79/10 points in terms of the quality of the labor force, ranking the 11^th among the 12 ranked countries in Asia. Vietnam is lacking high quality experts and skilled workers.

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s knowledge economy index KEI is low at 3.02 points, ranking the 102^nd among the 133 classified nations. The laborers in rural areas cannot go through vocational training courses and they have low productivity.

The problems in the quality of the labor force were a reason behind the low competitiveness of the national economy: in 2006, Vietnam ranked the 77^th among 125 economies, and in 2009, it ranked the 75^th among 133 countries.

Bad bachelors redundant, skilled workers deficient

Experts believe that the ratios of university graduates/ professional secondary schools graduates/ technical workers should be 1/4/10 in order to meet the requirements of the industrialization process. However, according to Dr Nguyen Thi Hoang Yen from the Vietnam Education Science Institute, the ratios were 1/1.17/0.91 in 2006. The figure in South Korea in 1985, when the country was in the middle of the industrialization period, was 1/5/25.

The figures can show the big problems of the labor force structure in Vietnam. High school graduates all prefer studying further at universities rather than going to vocational schools. That explains why many schools have been upgraded into universities in recent years, even though Vietnam does not have enough university lecturers.

What do educators say?

According to Professor Dr Nguyen Ngoc Tran, a well known educator, in the last few years, 185 intermediate schools (2-year training) have been upgraded into junior colleges (3-year training), while 60 junior colleges have turned into universities (4 or 5-year training). Especially, 12 schools have been upgraded two times from intermediate schools to universities.

Professor Hoang Tuy, also a well known educator in Vietnam, noted that there are too many low quality universities and junior colleges, while there are very few technical intermediate schools.

The current training structure has led to the fact that Vietnam lacks skilled technicians and workers, but it has excessive bad engineers and management officers. Thousands of university graduates still cannot undertake simple jobs which, in other countries, can be done by graduates from intermediate schools.

Huynh Cong Minh, Director of the HCM City Education and Training also admitted that the scale of the professional secondary schools remains modest. He said that in the countries with advanced education, 2/3 of high school graduates go to vocational schools; while only 1/3 go to universities. In HCM City, 20 percent of high school graduates go studying at universities, and the proportion would increase to 50 percent.

Source: TBKTSG