Vietnam: Foreign companies struggle to find skilled professionals
May 17, 2009
By John Ruwitch
Hanoi - About a year ago, 2 000 of the best and brightest from five of Vietnam's top universities were invited to take a lengthy multiple-choice exam for a shot at a job at Intel.
The giant computer chip maker had broken ground on its biggest factory in Vietnam's commercial hub, Ho Chi Minh City, and the $1 billion (R8.5bn at current exchange rate) assembly and test facility, which expected to start operations this year, needed good engineers.
It was more than just another big project. The Intel investment would put Vietnam on the global technology map and help a rising star in the manufacturing world advance up the value chain.
But the results from Intel's test cast a spotlight on one of Vietnam's biggest barriers to achieving that dream: its inadequate and inflexible higher education system.
A fraction of the students passed the written exam, covering physics, electrical engineering, maths and other topics. Then they were given an English test, and just 40 made the final cut.
Than Trong Phuc, the country manager for Intel in Vietnam, said he was not surprised by the results.
"Is Vietnam a literate society with good people with fundamental skills? Yes," he said. "But do these people already have knowledge about chip making in place? No. So we have to start from the ground."
Nick Jacobs, the spokesman for Intel, said the test was not designed for hiring, but rather to "evaluate the competencies" of students and to be a starting point for dialogue with the authorities.
Vietnamese newspapers and websites reported on the result, though, and word quickly spread.
The Intel tale soon became a go-to anecdote in the foreign business community to highlight the education system's failings and one of the big problems when investing in the southeast Asian country: a lack of skilled professionals.
Among Vietnamese, public debate has bloomed about what many call an education crisis, especially at a time when some argue that education reform should be a top priority as the government tries to right an economy buffeted by recession.
The higher education system remains a throwback to Vietnam's pre-reform days, when the economy was small and centralised, ill-equipped for new realities.
"The demand for education at the post-secondary level is enormous," according to Jeffrey Waite, who follows education in Vietnam for the World Bank.
"The system is under enormous pressure to respond by expanding access, and there's always the risk of expanding access at the cost of quality. Quality is of real concern."
One huge problem is staff. Political credentials remain at least as important in the selection of professors as educational bona fides, despite a clear need for better qualified teachers.
Less than 15 percent of teaching staff at higher education institutes had a doctorate, and that percentage had not changed in the past 10 years, said Waite.
Schools have little autonomy to tailor curricula and students are rewarded for memorisation skills, not critical thinking.
The school system, like other facets of life in Vietnam, is also plagued with corruption. Plagiarism is reportedly rife.
Not surprisingly, the products of such a system are weak.
Only 30 percent of university and college graduates met requirements for their jobs, state-run VietnamNet quoted the ministry of education and training as saying.
Between now and 2015, the two biggest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, will need about 4 million "high-quality" workers in fields such as information technology, tourism, shipbuilding and finance. Based on the current level and quality of training, at best 40 percent to 60 percent of demand could be met, it said.
The Vietnamese government recognises the need for change. The question is whether it will come fast enough.
Companies, meanwhile, are forced to be creative in finding ways to fill their human resource pipelines.
Some foreign firms have partnered with Vietnamese universities. Many have their own training programmes. FPT, one of Vietnam's top technology companies, even set up its own university in 2006.
Intel flew its 40 successful graduates to Malaysia for further training, and later this year will send 28 students to Portland State University in the US on two-year scholarships.
The government has been drafting and redrafting an education strategy to take it through to 2020, but it has faced criticism.
One former senior education official was quoted as calling a late draft "unbelievably romantic".
The start year keeps getting pushed back and it is unclear when the plan will be implemented.
One change critically needed, some say, is the role of the state, which must shift to one of broad oversight from micromanaging matters such as appointments.
"It's like they want to have their cake and eat it. They know what they want. They want to have one or two of their universities to be top ranked in the world. But they don't want to give away what they have," said Waite. - Reuters
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