“ 'Do you think I can find a job' after I finish studying is a question I regularly receive from my students,” said Ho Trung Chanh, Tourism Administration Dean of FPT HCM City University, at a recent workshop. “They are not sure if they can find jobs in their field, or they will have to work in unrelated fields, or sell goods online."

Hotels and restaurants are seriously lacking workers. The situation became more serious after Covid-19. They could not pay workers to retain them during the pandemic and most workers left for other jobs.

Meanwhile, schools kept training students for the tourism industry. Van Hien University, for example, has 400 graduates in tourism this year, while FPT University has 200. But the industry keeps complaining about shortages. 

“The problem is the disruption in the demand and supply of laborers,” Chanh said.

Tran Quang Duy, CEO of Chim Canh Cut Travel, attributed insufficient cooperation between schools and businesses. Many cooperation agreements in training have been signed between the parties, but they have been put into mothballs. Moreover, businesses want students to have more experience before they take the job.

Tran Ngoc Dong Quan from the HCM City Tourism Department said before the pandemic, the city had 160,000 workers in the tourism sector, including 7,272 tour guides, accounting for 4.5 percent of direct workers of the local tourism sector. 

During the pandemic, nearly 90 percent of small and medium sized travel firms suspended operation and the number of tour guides dropped.

To settle their problems, Nguyen Van My, chair of Lua Viet Travel, said that relations among businesses, schools and students need to be a part of an equilateral triangle. 

At some training schools, lecturers who worked as tour guides for only one year teach outdated knowledge. 

Ngoc Ha