Experts insisted on Wednesday that educational institutions in Vietnam reform their teaching and training methods to quench the thirst for high-quality manpower in the business community, especially foreign-invested enterprises.

Tri Viet University project’s founding president Ton Nu Thi Ninh (R) and Alain Cany

of EuroCham are seen in discussion before the EuroCham business

luncheon on education in Vietnam in HCMC on Wednesday

Alain Cany, chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham), reiterated the urgent need in an interview with the Daily when asked what foreign investors really expected from the institutions.

Both quality and quantity of employees were in dire need as more foreign investors were coming to capitalize on this growing economy, Cany said after a EuroCham business luncheon entitled “A Vision for Education in Vietnam” on Wednesday.

But, he suggested that the supply of skilled workers and employable university graduates be of paramount importance to support the new investors and companies that are unable to offer high salary to pull employees from other enterprises.

“The fact is that it is expensive to do the training at all levels,” Cany said. He added many small and medium-sized foreign firms were unable to afford training staff so they had to pull employees from other companies and this resulted in higher cost for human resources.

Vu Kim Hanh, executive director of the Center for Business Study and Assistance (BSA), said in her presentation at the event that using very high salary to attract people was not a good solution as only one or two top managers with special salary levels affected a company’s common compensation system.

Hanh noted there was a phenomenon that many large local companies, particularly those in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, paid unbelievably high salaries to lure qualified Vietnamese managers from the multinational corporations (MNC).

Hanh quoted Talenet’s survey with responses from 120 MNCs as saying that retaining high performers was one of the top five human resource challenges. The others are finding and attracting talent, motivating employees, developing a strong leadership team, and building competitive compensation package.

About 1.2 million new workers enter the country’s labor market every year. Tri Viet University project’s founding president Ton Nu Thi Ninh said the supply was plentiful but pointed out the reality that university graduates were ill-prepared for jobs and required of pre-work retraining before they really joined the market.

To resolve relevant problems, Ninh proposed educational institutions undertake reform in their teaching methods to empower the learner from kindergarten upward with curiosity, self-confidence, independent thinking and creativity.

Students should be provided with the right balance between knowledge and intellectual skills and work and life skills, Ninh said. Higher education must prepare students for a life career journey rather than for a job.

Cany shared Ninh’s view, saying that Vietnam’s education system should modify itself to produce people ready to work and to help gradually fix the problem that 65% of Vietnam’s workforce was unskilled.

Ninh stressed education was of strategic significance to Vietnam at its transitional period so it could help the country move up from the bottom of the middle income country box and avoid the so-called MIC trap if things were put on the right track. Otherwise, education could become the cause of Vietnam’s untapped potential and make the country miss the opportunities of an emerging economy.

Source: SGT