Vietnam faces a serious shortage of high-quality workers in information technology (IT), which poses challenges to the country as digitalisation, the fourth scientific revolution, is taking place worldwide. 



Under the national workforce master plan, Vietnam needs approximately one million IT workers by 2020. 

According to the recruitment website Vietnamworks, the demand for IT workers increases 47 percent annually but Vietnam meets only 8 percent of demand. 

Nguyen Thanh Tuyen, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Information and Communications’ Information Technology Department, said Vietnamese students can quickly grasp IT but lack soft skills and teamwork ability. 

Most software companies are small and medium without professional marketing staff so products are often distributed via foreign partners, he said. 

A survey of more than 50 IT firms by the Hanoi University of Science and Technology’s Faculty of IT showed that 70 percent of IT graduates achieved good grades but in reality, the IT workforce is weak in English proficiency, self-study and negotiation skills. 

Those who are fully equipped with the above skills tend to work for foreign enterprises, leading to the manpower scarcity for domestic firms.

To improve the IT workforce, Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha suggested rallying public involvement in IT and English training. 

Rector of FUNiX University – the first online university in Vietnam, Nguyen Thanh Nam, said online training saves time and costs. With diverse curricular, IT lovers could access online lectures by Vietnamese and foreign professors, he added. 

Vice President of the Vietnam Software & IT Services Association Mai Duy Quang proposed connecting IT firms with educational establishments, holding more conferences and seminars to aid students.

In 2014, the Ministry of Information and Communications issued a circular on standardising IT education, aiming to train generations of quality IT staff.-VNA