Vietnam pilots Japan's training to improve productivity

International cooperation for improved training

Labor productivity is a decisive factor in national competitiveness and business. However, Vietnam’s labor productivity remains very low compared to other countries in the region due to the low skill level of its workers. According to a survey conducted by the World Bank, the quality of Vietnam’s human resources ranked 11th out of 12 countries surveyed in Asia in 2018. About 82 percent of employers said they were dissatisfied with the quality of their trained workers.

Given the fourth industrial revolution, high-quality human resources play a decisive role in the country’s socioeconomic development. Therefore, the Vietnamese government has promoted the development of skilled human resources, contributing to increasing labor productivity and national competitiveness.

To implement the government’s policy of labor skills development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has paid special attention to mobilizing international cooperation for improved training. In 2018, the ministry launched a program with Japan’s National Institute of Technology to implement the KOSEN model, which provides practical and professional engineering education, contributing to the development of human resources for industry.

The KOSEN model is being piloted at three colleges under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, with 250 students being trained for the 2020-2021 period. After graduating, they are expected to meet labor export criteria to work in Japan or to meet standards to work in Japanese companies operating in Vietnam.

Pham Ngo Thuy Ninh, head of the Department of Training and Development of Human Resources under the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Department of Personnel and Organization, said the ministry has nine universities and 25 colleges, focusing on education and training for industries, such as electricity-electronics, engineering, garment and textile, chemicals, food technology, trade, and information technology. Each year, they supply more than 200,000 graduates to the labor market. Some universities and colleges have been successful in cooperation with businesses, but training of human resources for the industry and trade sector in general and the industrial sector in particular has not met requirements. The cooperation with Japan on the KOSEN model is expected to create a breakthrough, Ninh said.

Training incommensurate with needs

To increase efficiency for the KOSEN model, connection between schools and businesses, especially Japanese companies in Vietnam, play an important role. Yahagi Hitoshi, deputy chairman of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) in Hanoi, said Japanese companies have strict requirements on the quality of human resources. However, training of Vietnam’s human resources has not yet caught up with these needs. Therefore, schools need to pay higher attention to vocational training in providing specialized knowledge as well as skills training, Hitoshi said.

Nguyen The Hieu, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Department of Personnel and Organization, said Vietnam is looking forward to receiving more support from Japan in human resource training. He urged providing schools with more information about employers’ recruitment plans and job placement requirements, so that they can develop training plans suitable for business needs.