VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has rung the red alarm over some training majors, warning about the oversupply of the labor force in the fields. However, consultancy experts believe that they cannot see the oversupply in any business fields.

Universities and junior colleges all plan to cut down the number of students to enroll for economics training majors in the 2013 enrolment season as requested by MOET.

The ministry has been determined to reduce the number of economics majoring students that it plans a mechanism to discourage students to apply to the training majors. Under the plan, the economics students would have to pay 100 percent of tuitions, while they would not receive any subsidy from the state like the students in other training fields.

My Giang Son, Training Division Head of the Saigon University, said his school would cut down the number of students for business administration, finance & banking and accountancy faculties this enrolment season.

The school plans to enroll 200 students only for every training major, down by 150-170 students in comparison with 2012. Meanwhile, it will not enroll students for the three majors at junior college training level (3-year training).

Instead, the school would enroll more students for pre-education and primary education majors.

Pham Thai Son, MA, Deputy Head of the Training Division of the HCM City Food Industry University, also said the number of students to be enrolled this year would be lower by 300 students in comparison with 2012, mostly because of the reduction in the number of students majoring in finance & banking and business administration.

The Finance & Marketing University has decided to stop enrolling students for 3-year training system. The HCM City Economics University’s enrolment quota would be the same (4,000 students), but it would seek students for three new training majors, including international business, marketing and auditing.

Unlike the above said schools, the HCM City Banking University plans to enroll more students in 2013. The school last year plans to enroll 2,650 students, but it finally got the “quota” of 1,300 only.

National economy still lacks qualified economics bachelors

Commenting about the warning on the labor force oversupply in economics relating branches, Tran Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the HCM City Labor Market Information and Job Forecasting Center, noted that Vietnam is both deficient and redundant in the workers in the field. It lacks qualified workers and has unqualified workers redundant.

In fact, Tuan said this is a common problem of all the business fields. In HCm City alone, economics relating branches still need 10,000-12,000 workers.

Dr. Tran The Hoang, Head of the Training Division of the HCM City Economics University, also said banking students are facing the increasingly high risk of becoming redundant after finishing schools. Graduates nowadays find it very difficult to obtain jobs, especially at state agencies.

Meanwhile, employers tend to set higher requirements on candidates, especially the working experience. Those, who have high qualifications, get adapted to challenges still can be employed even though businesses tend to cut down the labor force now to cut down expenses in the context of the economic crisis.

Lam Tuong Thoai, Deputy Chief Secretariat of the HCM City National University, has confirmed that banks have been merging into each other in a restructuring process, thus leading to the lower demand for the labor force. However, this does not mean that the banks would not employ more workers. Those who have high qualifications and soft skills would still have job opportunities at banks.

Tien Phong