Da Nang’s IT and communications sector is facing a serious shortfall in manpower, as colleges and training centres are only able to supply a fifth of the human resources needed for businesses operating in the city.

The pressing issue was discussed at a seminar on human resources training in the IT sector on Wednesday.

The shortage also proves to be a major obstacle for efforts to lure large technology investment.

“Da Nang has 700 IT businesses, of which 250 are software companies, with human resources expansion of 25 to 30 per cent each year. However, colleges and training centres in the city are only able to provide 20 per cent of the requirement, while the remaining staff have to be recruited from other provinces and cities nationwide,” director of the city’s Information and Communications department, Nguyen Quang Thanh said.

“The city’s Technology college – a major source of IT manpower – enrolled 3,000 students, but only 300 trainees in the field of IT each year. This has been a continuing issue since 2010,” Thanh said.

He added that IT education centres should focus on practical skills rather than just theoretical learning.

According to Nguyen Thanh Binh, head of Da Nang’s Technology college’s IT faculty, 80 per cent of IT students were able to find jobs three months after graduation, and they almost all secured stable jobs after one year.

Nguyen Tuan Phuong, director of Da Nang FPT Software company, said the company employed 500 people, of which 100 were from Da Nang, last year.

“We need a huge amount of manpower for our big projects every year, but the city’s education system has not yet supplied enough for us. We had to compete against other companies in recruiting post-graduate students from colleges,” Phuong said.

“We almost always re-educate them [post-graduated students] for our current jobs,” he said.

FPT Software Da Nang has a staff of 2,000, of which two thirds were from Da Nang’s Technology College, while a third was from Ha Noi-based Technology college.

According to Nguyen Tat Khoi, deputy head of Da Nang’s Technology College’s IT faculty, here needs to be an exchange between businesses and human resource training centres to provide eligible employees for the IT sector.

He said the IT curriculum at colleges should be developed in line with the market and employment needs of enterprises.

Fast-track model

Phuc Chung Kien, from FPT College, said the college would introduce its own fast-track education model that could provide qualified IT students with a four-term course in 16 or 20 months.

“We aim to educate students with a quick course for the increasing human resource demands of IT businesses. Students could enjoy a more practical education and self-educated skills as well as studying at work places with senior IT engineers,” Kien said.

“Students can easily choose the most suitable education period from our nine-term course. We offer various opportunities for students to improve their skills and knowledge so they can be successfully recruited by employers,” he said.

According to Hoang Nam Tien, chairman of FPT Software company, the company employs 3,000 people each year in order to provide enough manpower for domestic and international projects.

“Our company has 10,000 employees, of which 1,300 are working at subsidiaries in 19 countries worldwide. We have a target of recruiting 30,000, with revenue of US$1 billion in 2020,” Tien said.

“Almost all education centres in Viet Nam have not yet caught up with global development trends as well as the latest technology. That’s the reason that we ask for an efficient and effective training course to meet the demand of human resources growth,” he said.

Nguyen Thanh Nam, deputy chairman of FPT College, said IT students could find jobs at FPT Groups’ companies after a four-term training course leading to an FPT College qualification.

“They [students] could either work for FPT Group or choose further education at FPT College. We are ready for collaboration with other colleges in speeding up qualified education to fill the IT human resource deficiency in Da Nang and Viet Nam as well,” Nam said.

He added that there it would only take a small change at current colleges to apply the FPT College’s fast-track education model.

At the conference, FPT College inked an agreement on IT human resource training for FPT Software Da Nang, and the enrolment will begin this April.

Last year, FPT Software company started its 10,000-Bridge Software Engineer (BrSE) programme in order to boost its presence in the Japanese market by 2020.

According to FPT Software, 23.3 per cent of Japanese businesses choose Viet Nam as the second outsourced service provider in the world.

Japan needs 60,000 IT engineers by 2020, of which 10,000 will come from Viet Nam and India.

FPT Software has opened branches in the United States, France, Japan and Singapore, as well as Malaysia, HCM City, Can Tho and Da Nang.

In 2015, FPT Software acquired RWE IT Slovakia – a subsidiary of the RWE Group in Eastern Europe – to strengthen its global delivery capabilities in Europe, as well as to turn RWE IT Slovakia into a future FPT Slovakia, a member of the FPT family.

Last year, FPT Group also debuted the Information Technology (IT) Service Centre, FPT Complex, in Da Nang to provide office space for 3,200 IT employees in the first stage and 10,000 engineers in the second stage. 

VNS