Vietnam recorded some 225,000 unemployed graduates in the first quarter of 2016 while many industrial zones are still facing serious lack of qualified staff, according to a local official.

Workers at an industrial zone

The data was revealed in a workshop on improving the training quality of the country’s labour force in industrial and export processing zones in Vietnam co-organised by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Training and GIZ Vietnam on May 26 in HCM City.

Bui The Duc - Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee for Propaganda and Education told the workshop that in recent years only about 20 per cent of staff working at local industrial zones were qualified.

Duc said that 75.2% of the population were of working age, but just 17.9% were qualified, with the rate even lower at just 11.2% in rural areas

The imbalance in employment structure has resulted in 225,000 unemployed college graduates in the first quarter of 2016.

According to the General Bureau of Vocational Training under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, by September 2015, Vietnam had a total of 304 industrial zones and 14 economic zones which are employing 2.6 million people but 80% of them did not have necessary qualifications.

Head of the Bureau, Nguyen Hong Minh said that although there have been some improvements in the vocational training activities for industrial zones, they really need a breakthrough in the training quality.

"I see many firms now employ unqualified workers to reduce costs," Minh said. "Many foreign-invested firms aren’t accepting graduates as they don’t trust them to have sufficient skills. These companies like to train their staff themselves. So I think we need to pay more attention to our training. We should open vocational training centres at industrial and export processing zones."

Host Sumer, director of the Germany Vocation Development and Cooperation Organisation suggested that instead of following strict rules and regulations on training activities, Vietnam should try several training models and then choose the most appropriate.

"At present I haven't seen the roles of local firms in vocational training activities," he said. "You should stay away from the administrative rules and try new way of training if you're sure about it."

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, there are 1,467 vocational training schools for industrial and export processing zones nation-wide.

Dtinews