VietNamNet Bridge – The lack of qualified labour force has been blamed on unreasonable training curricula which puts an emphasis on theory and makes light of practice.

Pham Hoai Nam, director of GM Academy Vietnam, an international training establishment, pointed out that though Vietnamese young workers have good professional knowledge, they cannot contribute to the country’s development.

“This should be blamed on the education system which puts emphasis on providing theoretical knowledge,” he said in an interview given to Giao Duc Vietnam.

Nam, who attended a training course in South Korea, said he can see a big difference between Korean and Vietnamese students.

“Korean education has high practical level. Korean students can create useful products,” he noted.

“The training curricula designed for general and higher education do not follow closely the new circumstances in the country and the world. Vietnamese students do not have the necessary skills to adapt to the new circumstances in the context of global integration,” he added.

When asked if the increase in the ratio of university students per 10,000 people would lead to a higher-quality labor force, he said “no”.

“The increase in the number of university students does not mean improvement in quality, if the current training curricula and education technology cannot be reformed,” he said, adding that the key lies in reasonable curricula.

Vietnamese schools have been doing well in providing theoretical knowledge to students, but badly in training in soft skills and other necessary skills.

Thanh Nien newspaper quoted Pham Thai Son, deputy director of the HCM City Food Processing Industry University, as saying that practice has not been paid appropriate attention due to the lack of lecturers in charge of practice lessons.

“As for economics-related training majors, lecturers give both theoretical and practical lessons,” he said. “Only technology majors can have practical lessons with separate lecturers.”

Meanwhile, Nguyen Tien Dung from the HCM City University of Technique Education noted that even students at polytechnic schools do not have many practice lessons.

The problem, according to Dung, lies in the lack of lecturers and modern equipment.

“Lecturers themselves do not have opportunities to work with machines,” Dung said. “As they only give lectures at school, they cannot learn about the world’s latest scientific information.”

An educator in Hanoi commented that “it is unrealistic to dream of having good lecturers for practice lessons in Vietnam”.

“Vietnamese schools now seriously lack university lecturers. As far as I know, some schools even hire new university graduates to work as lecturers or assistance lecturers,” he said.

Thanh Mai