Labour shortage expected in farming, engineering

The prediction follows human resources development planning adopted by the Prime Minister from 2011-20. It set a goal for the number of skilled labourers in agriculture, forestry and fishery to account for 50% of the sectors' workers in 2020 compared to only 15.5% in 2010.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development statistics, as many as one million workers in these sectors are needed every year. Only nine percent of the current labour force in these sectors have bachelor degrees compared to nearly 40% with intermediate education and nearly 10% educated to primary level.

Nguyen Quoc Cuong, an admission officer from the Ministry of Education and Training, said that entrance scores set for universities and colleges in agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors remain very low, however, many educational facilities still cannot recruit enough students.

He said that Vietnam is an agricultural country. To develop a high-quality agriculture sector, the State and enterprises have made huge investments.

To encourage more students to enrol, big universities such as Vietnam National University of Forestry, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, Can Tho University have launched coordinated training programmes with enterprises and institutes to offer scholarships and high paid jobs for sophomores and juniors, Cuong said.

He also added that students who major in bio-technology, natural resources management and post-harvest technology found graduate work easily. The working places are mainly in laboratory, institutes instead of on the fields like many students think.

There is also high demand for mechanical engineering, chemicals, bio-technology, industrial electricity graduates, but universities are still struggling to recruit students for these majors.

In the age of the country's integration towards industrialisation and modernisation, enterprises need skilled workers in engineering and technology. These sectors currently meet 50 to 60% of labour market demand. Not many people want to work in these sectors due to a heavy workload, Cuong said.

However, he said these sectors offer better chances of employment and a higher salary than many other industries.