VietNamNet Bridge – The government disagrees with the opinion that Vietnam has “too many university graduates”, and that society’s resources are being wasted.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said at a conference on the establishment of the Vietnam Association of Universities and Junior Colleges late last week that the country does have too many graduates with bachelor’s degrees.

Prior to his speech, local newspapers had quoted many education experts as saying that Vietnam produces “more than enough” graduates with bachelor’s degrees, who often end up jobless.

Pham Thi Ly from the HCM City National University, citing official reports, said the number of unemployed graduates had become “alarming”.

The figure had reached 174,000 by the third quarter of 2014.

The high unemployment rate of university graduates has been discussed over the last few years. A lot of young bachelors, including the ones with two or three university degrees, have to lay by their degrees in wardrobe and take the jobs as blue collar workers.

Meanwhile, a lot of bachelors, masters rush to go to vocational schools, trying other careers.

Educators noted that the high rate of unemployed university graduates shows that an unreasonable educational structure exists.

While businesses need skilled workers, universities can only provide academic knowledge. While vocational schools have been left deserted, universities have been mushrooming, leading to a sharp increase in the number of graduates with bachelor’s degrees.

However, Dam believes that it is a blunder to think that Vietnam has an excessive number of university graduates.

Speaking at the conference, he pointed out the big gap between Vietnam’s economy and developed economies, emphasizing that the gap can only be narrowed if Vietnam improves its labor force quality.

Dam called on people to “keep calm” and “consider carefully” the issue that many experts have mentioned: the existence of too many universities and the production of too many graduates.

“The ratio of university students in the population in Vietnam is still low compared with the world, and lower than the target Vietnam strives for,” Dam said.

“Therefore, one should not think graduates with bachelor degrees are redundant,” he continued. “If the students we train have high qualifications, this will be a great advantage for Vietnam to attract foreign investors.”

The reports about Vietnam’s productivity released recently by domestic and foreign organizations all attributed the low productivity to low-quality human resources.

Dam cited a report as saying that 80 percent of managers still do not have sufficient skills to work in an international environment.

The figures are 60 percent for professional engineers and 40 percent for untrained workers. Thus, what Vietnam needs is to train workers with the highest possible qualifications.

Ngan Anh