Job placement services to be enhanced by 2015

The plans aim to increase the number of people who find employment via job placement centres to 30 percent in 2015 and 40 percent by 2020.

Nguyen Thi Hai Van, deputy director of the Employment Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, introduced the plans at a meeting on job placement activities in Dong Nai province on April 9.

Van said Vietnam needs more job consultants as the ratio of job consultants to the total population in the country is 1/10,000, much lower than the world’s average of 1/2,200.

According to the Employment Department, during the 2011-12 period, job placement centres across the country offered employment services to nearly 2.6 million people. The number of job seekers applying for vacancies at these centres increased by 12-15 percent.

The department, however, said job placement centres only met about 30 percent of the actual demand for placements at enterprises.

The Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of northern Hai Duong province said there is an imbalance between supply and demand for jobs in the province, as local enterprises are in need of skilled technical workers, while there was an excess of college graduates.

An official from the HCM City Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs attributed the imbalance to the fact that Vietnam’s education system has not developed well enough to keep pace with the country’s economic development.

The official said it is not a lack of job opportunities but workers’ lack of skills needed for available jobs that is the problem.

Therefore, more creative education reforms are needed to ensure labour demands are effectively met.