VietNamNet Bridge – Low-quality education and training are the two main reasons behind the increasingly high number of unemployed university graduates, for which the Ministry of Education and Training must take responsibility.

Dinh Van Hanh from Ha Nam province, for example, has been unemployed for three years after graduating from Maritime University, and applying for dozens of jobs at many companies.

Hanh finally decided to give up his dream of becoming an engineer, and opened a motorbike shop, where he has been working as owner and employee for several years.

There were 162,000 university graduates who are unemployed (or underemployed in jobs outside their major field), as reported by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA).

Another report showed that 1 million workers registered as unemployed in the first three months of the year, which included 200,000 workers completing junior college (three years of training) and university (four to five years of training).

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, 50 percent of university graduates could not find jobs in 2009. Of the other 50 percent who could find jobs, 30 percent had to take jobs outside their major.

Professor Dr. Nguyen Minh Thuyet, former chair of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, said the high unemployment rate among post-secondary graduates was a reflection on the country’s education structure.

“We have been trying to produce more and more engineers and office workers, while we have not paID appropriate attention to train skilled factory workers,” he noted.

Thuyet noted that though the Vietnam’s economy has been developing well, the demand for highly qualified workers is still modest in many sectors.

Automobile enterprises, which mostly assemble car parts, do not need many engineers. As Vietnam exports raw products, it does not need many manufacturing engineers.

Thuyet said that too many universities had been created in recent years, and the number of students receiving university degrees had increased steadily year after year.

There are so many schools that some of them are willing to accept students who score only 10 out of 30 marks on the university entrance exams.

Many of these students are poorly qualified and are looking for jobs.

Thuyet said that 100 percent of university students can graduate, which is an “unreasonable proportion”, compared to the 50 percent in France.

Meanwhile, the curricula at universities and junior colleges are viewed as too academic and impractical, which explains the constant complaints from employers who say it is difficult to find staff for the positions they need.

Tien Phong