VietNamNet Bridge – While waiting for the job opportunities to come, unemployed university graduates attend training courses to obtain master degrees, hoping that higher education would bring better jobs.

The “master degree rush”

Vo Anh Thu, who is following a postgraduate training course on education management at the Saigon University, said 40 out of the 96 members of the university class have been attending postgraduate training courses like her.

“Most of them decided to continue studying because they still cannot find jobs,” she explained.

VHN now studies at the HCM City University of Technology (Hutech) to obtain the master degree in business administration. She finished the Hong Bang International University one year ago, but remains unemployed. Therefore, she decided to study further for the time being. However, she keeps pessimistic about the future, because she is not sure if the master degree would help find jobs.

According to Prof Nguyen Minh Thuyet, former Deputy Chair of the National Assembly’s Committee of Culture, Education, the Youth and Children, the universities in Vietnam produce 400,000 bachelors and engineers every year, while the demand is much lower, which leads to the high unemployment rate of the workers with university degrees.

There are about 100 industrial zones and export processing zones nationwide which attract 500,000 workers, including 5-7 percent of workers with university (4-5 year training) degrees, 8 percent of junior college (3-year training) degrees and 60 percent of technique officers.

Supposed that Vietnam has 10 more industrial zones every year and 10 percent of workers with higher education who need to be replaced, it would need 13,000-15,000 new workers only.

Anh Thu is not alone. The majority of university graduates in HCM City stay unemployed. They decide to study further because “studying is better than sitting idle.” Some of them believe that the higher education they have the higher income they would obtain. Therefore, they choose to study further, while refusing the jobs as blue collar workers.

Hoang Thi Thu Tam said she is preparing for the entrance exams to a master training course at the HCM City Economics University. Tam has been jobless since mid September 2011.

“All the employers say they want experienced candidates. Meanwhile, I have just finished school and I don’t have experiences,” she complained.

Tam has decided to study further while waiting for a decent job to come. In order to make money to pay tuitions, Tam takes an extra job as an accountant for a small business, for which she receives VND1.5 million a month.

Higher degree does not mean higher job opportunity

Huynh Minh Nhat, a telecom engineer, working for an electronics enterprise in Tan Binh Industrial Zone, said that it’s more difficult to find jobs with the master degree.

“It’s easy to find the jobs with the monthly income of less than 10 million dong. However, you would feel ashamed if you only can get a normal job with your master degree. You’d rather stay jobless than having a job with less than expected income,” he explained.

Tran Hung Dao, Deputy General Director of A Chau JSC, said he wants the experienced workers, not the workers with high degrees.

He went on to say that he cannot accept to pay high salaries to the candidates who only have… the master degrees and still cannot prove their ability.

“Degrees don’t 100 percent truly reflect the ability of candidates. With the current education system, there are numerous candidates with high education degrees,” he commented.

Dan Viet