The country’s high-tech work force is low in quantity and poor in quality, said the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, Nguyen Van Lang.

He was speaking at a national seminar on ‘High-tech human resources training to serve society’s demand,’ held in Hanoi on April 11.

More than 300 representatives from ministries, agencies, universities and businesses across the country attended.

An agreement on training was signed between the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Science and Technology. In addition, 20 other agreements were signed between high-tech zones and universities.

The country has 321 universities with high-tech faculties: IT, biology, materials and automation, among others, said Banh Tien Long, standing deputy Education and Training Minister.

However, the country is often placed in the bottom half of international rankings in some criteria, such as e-government, technological creativity and skills, he pointed out.

Every year, universities provide 110,000 IT engineers, but only 10 percent of them are really qualified in the field, said Mr. Lang.

National high-tech capacity is currently low and small scale, and Vietnam has yet to totally own any key technology. There is also a serious imbalance of high-tech personnel training between engineers, mangers and workers, Mr Long commented.

Addressing the event, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan urged universities, institutes and businesses to create many solutions, including developing training programs that meet society’s demands, raising training quality to international standards, setting up more laboratories and building a mechanism for technology transfer.

He also asked them to set up education programs through cooperation with foreign universities, such as those in France and Germany, opening centers that provide information and forecasts about employment and the labor market, and setting up high-tech awards.

VietNamNet/SGGP