VietNamNet Bridge – As the unemployment rates of graduates keep rising, officials are blaming unbalanced training courses and the low quality of graduates.

Students at HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities looking for jobs at a career fair.

A new report by the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs (ILSSA) showed that although unemployment declined 2.42 percent to 1.14 million people in the second quarter of this year, the number of graduates being unable to find a job is on the rise.

In the second quarter, 199,400 university graduates were unemployed, compared with 22,000 in the three months to March.

Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, head of the ILSSA, said universities are recruiting more students than the market needs.

Dao Trong Thi, Chairman of the National Assembly Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, said skills of graduates did not meet business needs, and there as a concentration of aspiring workers in cities, while rural areas were starved of workers.

Vietnam has 436 universities and colleges with 2.363,942 students.

In order to improve the quality of graduates and reduce unemployment, vice minister of education and training Bui Van Ga said the government may reduce or stop courses offered by universities for which there was no of little demand for graduates, such as accounting, and in the finance and banking sectors.

But e-commerce, network security and fisheries management may be encourage because of a shortage of skilled graduates, Ga said.

DTriNews