New MoU shows ManpowerGroup’s drive to upskill Vietnamese workforce for 4.0 era

Last week, ManpowerGroup has signed its fourth Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA). What does the new MoU mean to Vietnam and ManpowerGroup?

Following the successful implementation of the previous three MOUs from 2008 to 2018, the fourth MoU marks another milestone in the co-operation between MoLISA and ManpowerGroup Vietnam.

Via the fourth MoU’s commitments, ManpowerGroup Vietnam aims to develop skilled talent through improving the knowledge and professional experience of the local workforce to adapt to the requirements of automation and digitisation.

ManpowerGroup Vietnam has been providing expertise and practical solutions to upskill the Vietnamese labour market and provide people with meaningful and sustainable employment for more than 10 years. I believe that in a rapidly changing world of work, upskilling people for the jobs of the future and developing an effective legal framework is critical for the success of people, companies, and governments alike.

We are delighted to partner with MoLISA to develop and execute a strategic plan to create Vietnam’s workforce of tomorrow and help people continue to access meaningful employment and companies to find the talent they need to succeed in the digital age.

The fourth MoU with MoLISA also aims to promote women's roles and enhance their leadership skills in Industry 4.0. We highly appreciate the important role of women in their families, but the untapped female workforce should receive special attention and support from the government and local businesses to have the thriving career that they deserve.

ManpowerGroup Vietnam and MoLISA signed the fourth MoU

What are the challenges that the Vietnamese workforce is facing in Industry 4.0?

First of all, Vietnam has a very dynamic workforce that is young but lack in-demand skills. That is why the biggest challenge is how we can help the Vietnamese workforce re-skill and upskill to face the challenges of 4.0.

According to our Total Workforce Index 2017, only 11 per cent of the Vietnamese workforce is highly skilled and able to meet the challenges of Industry 4.0. Therefore, they should receive support from the government and enterprises regarding training and upskilling programmes. The focus of the training is not only on hard skills, but on soft skills. However, the local workforce also needs to upskill themselves.

They need the so-called “learnability,” which is the desire and ability to learn new skills. Individuals need to do it themselves through available resources, such as online learning programmes like powerYOU by ManpowerGroup. By upskilling, they can have more job opportunities and easily stay employable in the changing world of work. Vietnam is moving from low income to middle income and sooner or later will move up further. That is good news for those who keep learning.

What are the coming plans of ManpowerGroup to help improve the quality of Vietnamese labour in Industry 4.0?

As I shared above, developing skilled talent so that the local workforce can adapt to the requirements of automation and digitisation is critical today.

Job opportunities are plentiful in the market today, but the quality of labour often fails to meet the requirements of enterprises. Therefore, we are actively working with many educational institutions to equip and improve the in-demand skills for students, especially students at vocational schools to help them meet the requirements of enterprises in the digital age.

From helping young people develop the skills that employers need to sharing workforce expertise gained from workforce development in more than 80 countries and territories, ManpowerGroup is committed to continue collaboration with vocational institutions in Vietnam. Our objective is to connect the students with various internships and job opportunities

An example of this is the signing of a MoU between ManpowerGroup Vietnam and the Eastern Saigon Vocational School in District 9, Ho Chi Minh City on June 5. Through this agreement, ManpowerGroup Vietnam is committed to provide the school with consultancy services to develop vocational training programmes meeting businesses’ requirements as well as soft skills training for the students. The cooperation is expected to provide thousands of job opportunities to the students and jobseekers in District 9 and the neighbouring regions.

In many northern provinces like Thai Binh, Hoa Binh, Vinh Phuc, Phu Xuyen, and Hung Yen, among others, ManpowerGroup Vietnam has established close relationships with several universities and vocational schools whose students are ready to take internships at many of our clients’ companies.

Especially, we aim to support the improvement of the labour market infrastructure in Vietnam by sharing our experience from international labour markets, as well as connecting and enhancing Vietnam's cooperation with other countries on labour, employment, and human resources development. We believe this objective is within our reach thanks to ManpowerGroup’s 70 years of global expertise in HR consulting and recruitment.

We believe that we can contribute positively to improving the quality of the local workforce, reducing unemployment, and enabling enterprises to find the right talent they need.