University graduates lack necessary skills for works

VietNamNet Bridge – 94 percent of newly recruited say they lack necessary skills and need retraining. Especially, 92 percent of them need additional professional knowledge.

Universities all have shown the committed standards for their graduates in terms of knowledge, skills, attitude, work capability and the ability to follow further studies after the graduation. However, agencies and businesses, or the employers, all say that the graduates cannot meet the standards committed by the schools.

New school graduates lack both professional knowledge and skills

Luong Thi Hoai Phuong from Asia Commercial Bank has pointed out that 50 percent of school graduates cannot find jobs in their trained fields, because the training quality cannot meet the standards committed by the schools.

Law schools, for example, all say that their graduates master the basic knowledge in economics laws which allow them to use the theory in practice. However, in fact, the number of the students who can meet the requirements remains very modest.

A survey conducted by Nhan Viet Management Group in August-November of 2011, on 925 students of big universities in HCM City and Hanoi shows that 94 percent of new graduates who have been recruited admit that they lack necessary knowledge and need retraining.

Of these, 61 percent of graduates need the retraining in basic soft skills, 53 percent need the retraining in the management skills and 92 percent need the retraining in professional knowledge.

“There always exists a big gap between the supply and the use of labors,” said Phan Thanh Binh, Strategy Director of Nhan Viet management Group. A big percentage of school graduates cannot create good impression with employers, and they nearly cannot overcome the challenges when attending the competition for jobs.

Nguyen Quoc Huy, a lecturer of the Lac Hong University, said that he has found from a survey conducted by him and his colleagues in June 2011, that there is a clear gap between the requirements of employers and the qualifications of new graduates. Regarding the professional knowledge, university graduates can have 2.63/4.31 scores. The figures were 2.38/4.09 scores in terms of working experience, 2.5/41.6 in terms of hard skills and 2.75/4.03 in soft skills.

The survey was conducted accidentally on 320 businesses in Dong Nai, Binh Duong provinces, and in HCM City.

Especially, the biggest problems have arisen in the training of high-technology majors. A survey conducted by Vinasa has pointed out that the successful recruitment proportion is very low, just 5-10 percent, while most of businesses say they have to spend 1-3 months to retrain newly recruited officers.

Universities’ committed standards for graduates not practical

Experts have pointed out that most universities build up the committed standards for graduates just based on theory; therefore, the standards prove to be impractical.

Dr Le Thi Thanh Mai, Head of the Students’ Affair of the HCM City National University, said that schools build up the standards for graduates in order to help learners to meet the standards in professional knowledge and work skills. However, the soft skills such as communication skills, presentation skills and teamwork skills still have not mentioned clearly in the design of the training programs. Besides, when students graduate, schools do not make review to find out if the graduates can meet the required skills.

Dr Vo Xuan Dan from the HCM City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology, said that when building up the standards for graduates, schools show their training capability and the quality of their graduates. Therefore, they need to fulfill their commitments.

There are 420 operational universities in Vietnam, including 339 state owned schools.