Nguyen Ngoc Bao, CEO of VTC, says there were 7,000 workers in the gaming industry in 2015. The figure rose to 25,000 in 2021.

Figures showed that in 2021, Vietnam needed 450,000 IT workers, but the total number of programmers as of the first quarter in 2021 was 430,000, which means that 20,000 programmer jobs won’t be filled in the near future.

The shortage stems from the disparity between the qualifications of programmers and enterprises’ requirements. 

Only 16,500 students, or 30 percent, of total 55,000 IT students can satisfy the requirements and skills set by enterprises.

Prejudice in society about games as a harmful source of entertainment is one reason behind the underdevelopment of the gaming industry over many years.

Game addiction is likened to drug addiction and is listed as a kind of mental disease because it harms players’ mental health. 

Many people believe that game addiction can cause deviant and violent acts, such as murder or robbery. At school, teachers warn students and their parents of the harm that games can bring and ask students to stay away from games.

This mentality has worsened the manpower shortage in the game industry. Universities produce workers in the ICT industry, but they don’t have deep knowledge about games. 

The Director of the Authority for Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI) said at an event several days ago that the Post and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT) is seeking permission to open a new major in gaming at universities.

The idea has been applauded by young people. Reader Dieu Thuyen said that Vietnamese universities can train in game programming, graphics designing, game designing (game script writing). The demand for these posts is very high, while there is no school that provides official training in the majors.

Sola Lee, a student, also said that offering gaming as a major will be an important decision. In fact, schools have been well aware of the high demand for workers in the industry and they have been enrolling students for game majors for some years. However, the students have been listed as studying IT in general, while there is no specific major for game.

There have also been many comments about eSport. eSport has been developing very rapidly in the world. Many players and professional teams have appeared who have high income from wages, image copyright and prizes worth up to millions of dollars. Therefore, it is necessary to train eSport as well, so that it can make a contribution to the sports development of the country.

Hai Dang