VietNamNet Bridge - Studies all show an imbalance between labor market demand and schools’ labor supply.  

There's an imbalance between labor market demand and schools' labor supply

According to the HCMC Center for Labor Market Information and Forecast, in 2018-2025, the city will need 300,000 additional laborers each year.

Of this, the number of trained workers would account for 85 percent, including 21 percent finishing elementary school and 28 percent finishing intermediate vocational school. The number of workers finishing junior colleges would be to 16 percent and those with higher education levels 18 percent.

The report shows that the demand for trained workers with intermediate education level (2-year training after general education) is the highest.

However, vocational intermediate schools are not the choice of the majority of students. A survey of 120 high schools in HCMC in 2016-2018 found that 87 percent want to follow higher education after finishing high school. Only 7 percent plan to go to junior colleges and 6 percent to vocational intermediate schools. 

The majority of students have interest in jobs related to technology, finance and business. Meanwhile, reports say the service sector needs the highest number of workers of 70 percent, followed by the construction industry with 28 percent and agriculture 2 percent.

Tran Anh Tuan, deputy director of the labor information center, noted that there is an imbalance between labor supply and demand: schools do not focus their training in majors that businesses want, but rather focus on producing bachelor’s degree graduates, while businesses more want workers with technical skills.

Up to 60 percent of high school graduates choose unsuitable training majors. Only 5 percent of students have knowledge about their majors, and 75 percent do not. In HCMC, about 80 percent of students find jobs after graduation, while 50 percent of them can find jobs suitable to their capabilities.

Nguyen Ngoc Tai from the Education Research Institute said the problem lies in the quality of career counselling activities.

Tuan agreed that the career guidance at general schools is still poor. Most schools cannot organize view exchanges or seminars on job opportunities for students. 

As a result, hundreds of thousand of university bachelor’s degree graduates cannot find jobs, while many other can find jobs but cannot get satisfactory wages.

A report of MOLISA (Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs) released in the second quarter of 2018 showed that employees with bachelor’s degrees have the highest income level of VND7.87 million a month. 

The workers finishing elementary vocational school earn VND6.51 million, and workers finishing junior colleges receive VND6.12 million. Meanwhile, vocational intermediate schools’ degree holders earn VND5.57 million.

The income of workers with bachelor’s degree is just VND1.3 million higher than those with elementary vocational training.

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