Globalization and the industrial revolution 4.0 are creating opportunities for international economic cooperation but also pose many challenges.

According to analysts, with the 4th industrial revolution, the key is connection – connection between the real world and the virtual world, connection between businesses, between people, and between infrastructures.

At the Workshop on Education, Vocational Training and Social Security held by the Working Group on Human Resource Development in the framework of the Second Senior Officials Meeting (SOM2) of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and related meetings, Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Doan Me Diep emphasized: The 4th Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) is a major global trend, with the driving force of development of science and technology. The foundation of this revolution is digital technology and the integration of smart technologies to optimize processes and production methods.

Life has also proved that the 4th Industrial Revolution has been making breakthrough changes, with strong impact on socio-economic development in each country, each region and on a global scale. In this context, education, skills training and social security are issues that attract the attention of all economies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Along with the explosion of the 4th Industrial Revolution, there will be a big shift in vocational education in the future. Many old jobs and sources will be lost, while new occupations in the digital, programming, data protection fields will appear, etc. Requirements on qualifications and skills of workers to meet increased employment requirements will increase, posing new issues in education and training development to meet the change of requirements in the future.

Mr. Can Van Luc, an economics expert, and member of the National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation said in an interview with the media, in the context of APEC integration, digital technology is a condition, an opportunity for Vietnamese agencies and enterprises to exchange experiences, learn and transfer technology from foreign partners. The strengthening of cooperation between APEC members in the field of human resources development, control of risk emerging from digital technology can be seen as another opportunity. At the same time, digital technology contributes to the improvement of labor productivity, which is low in Vietnam.

With the characteristics of the current human resources of Vietnam, first of all, the 4th Industrial Revolution brings a number of opportunities.

Two sides of the coin

However, Luc also warned, this is like the two sides of a coin, as the 4th Industrial Revolution also brings about big challenges.

To take advantage of the opportunities and catch up with the Industrial Revolution 4.0, many experts say that in order not to fall behind, Vietnam needs to start right from the ground, especially the development of hi-tech human resources and competitiveness. The next challenge is the competitiveness of each Vietnamese worker, which is now at low level (low labor productivity, lack of soft skills, professional skills and foreign languages ...). Therefore, the 4th Industrial Revolution can create pressure on employment.

Information security and network security are also considered difficulties that the 4th Industrial Revolution creates for Vietnam. Vietnam's IT infrastructure is fundamentally progressing but still inadequate. In addition, the awareness, perspective and knowledge of state agencies required to meet the new requirement should also be taken into account.

In Vietnam, it is a matter of fact that there is a widespread lack of skilled workers and redundancy of bachelor degree graduates. This situation is popular in not only the field of economics, but also in various industries. Within the framework of APEC, it is necessary to standardize the positioning and recognition of mutual qualifications, in particular digital degrees, and certificates from online competitions. In addition to traditional training, e-learning training is becoming common. At the same time, it is necessary to focus more on training of foreign languages (especially English), knowledge and skills in IT or skills that Vietnamese workers are weak at.

In addition, Luc also said that it is necessary to reform institutions, create a working environment in which employees can devote their ability, be recognized, correctly assessed and given help to study, without a stressful environment i.e., to create a healthy organizational culture.

Hoang Long