Finding quality workers is hard labour

November 17, 2010 | 15:22

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A dearth of quality labour is concerning foreign software companies.

According to Ministry of Information and Communications, the domestic information technology

sector will need around 528,000 workers by 2020 with 148,000 people in software outsourcing. However, current training facilities can only provide around 400,000 IT workers.

An executive at Hewlett-Packard Vietnam said the firm would set up a wholly foreign-owned software business in Vietnam in early 2011.

“We are tabling negotiations and waiting for responses from Vietnamese functional bodies for the project,” he added.

He said labour was among the firm’s greatest concerns amid growing its presence in Vietnam.

The American firm is not the only one with labour concerns in Vietnam.

To address the labour problem, the world’s largest chip maker Intel tailored an overseas study scholarship programme to seek and train prospective engineers for its largest chipset testing and assembling factory in Vietnam which will need around 4,000 workers when at full capacity.

Domestic IT companies are also in a fix.

For instance, Vietnam’s leading ICT firm FPT Corporation has established FPT University with a chartered capital of VND15 billion ($75,000) whose core function is to train IT labour to feed the firm and domestic market demands.

However, university graduates can only satisfy one third of the firm’s recruitment requirements.

In a similar case, domestic leading software outsourcing firm TMA has also founded a training centre to serve its own demands and add more quality workforce to Vietnam’s software outsourcing industry.

By Duc Huy

vir.com.vn

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