Emphasis on training skilled support industry workforce

More practice, less theory

Unlike past perceptions of support industries’ lesser importance, Vietnam has come to realize the crucial role of enterprises providing raw materials and parts for manufacturing and production. In fact, in the context of the state’s economic integration, the industry sector cannot exist and develop without robust support industries since they are a decisive factor in product prices and competitiveness.

According to domestic and foreign experts, although Vietnam has an abundant and hardworking workforce, it lacks the numbers of highly skilled human resources required. Skilled workers in the support industry are particularly lacking, compared to those in neighboring countries like Thailand and China.

Dr. Le Dong Phuong, Director of the Research Center for Higher Education and Occupation under the Vietnam National Institute of Educational Sciences, explains that supporting industries have relatively short life spans due to constantly changing technologies. Therefore, enterprises need to coordinate with universities to create conditions for students to practice on new technologies. Based on their performance, enterprises can then select those students they consider suitable to their needs and employ them without having to retrain them.

Do Thi Thuy Huong, the Executive Board Member of the Vietnam Electronics Industries Association, said investment in human resources is sustainable not only for support industries but also for other sectors and requires close cooperation between training facilities and enterprises. The training facilities should add more practice sessions to their theory lessons, and enhance training in foreign languages to ensure the general quality of labor resources.

Urgent task

Mechanical engineering experts say that in order to turn Vietnam into a manufacturing hub, improving the quality of supporting industry human resources is an urgent task.

Representatives from the Hanoi University of Industry say training human resources for supporting industry requires help from the enterprises themselves. “For example, students can go into practice at enterprises with modern equipment, which is not available at universities. In return, enterprises can have discussions with universities/training facilities about their requests or demand from the graduates so that the training facilities can meet their expectations,” one official suggested.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is currently providing support to develop highly-qualified human resources, especially in support industries. Pham Tuan Anh, Deputy Director of the MOIT’s Industry Agency, said MOIT and Samsung Vietnam signed a Memorandum of Understanding on training Vietnamese consultants in the support industry to help enterprises improve their competitiveness and join in supply chains of multinational corporations, including Samsung. The training courses will have strong practical aspects in the current context of support industry enterprises in Vietnam, contributing to their improvement.

“MOIT has identified highly-qualified human resources as a key factor in the development of enterprises. Therefore, in coming years, the ministry will continue to organize training programs in each specific industry like training consultants in production improvements, or training experts in manufacturing molds, through cooperation with foreign organizations and businesses such as Samsung, the World Bank and LinkSME,” said Pham Tuan Anh.