Vietnam shifts from degrees to job skills to boost labour productivity
VOV.VN - Vietnam is moving to place greater emphasis on job skills, practical ability and adaptability rather than academic degrees, as a new government plan seeks to raise labour productivity and build a more modern and efficient labour market.
Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra on August 30 signed a decision, issuing a plan to implement Conclusion 62 of the Party Central Committee Secretariat on improving national labour productivity alongside the development of a synchronised, modern and efficient labour market.
The plan sets out eight groups of tasks and solutions aimed at improving labour productivity and contributing to the Government’s goal of achieving double-digit economic growth.
One of its most notable directions is a change in how workforce quality is assessed. The plan calls for a shift from emphasising academic qualifications toward occupational skills, practical capability, adaptability and work performance, while promoting lifelong learning so workers can regularly retrain and upgrade their skills.
Moving workers into higher-productivity jobs
A major priority is to encourage the movement of workers from low-productivity activities to higher-productivity jobs, linked to the development of economic growth corridors, key economic regions and projects using advanced technologies and generating higher added value.
The plan also calls for businesses to adopt new technologies, improve production processes and strengthen management capacity, as well as encouraging the informal economy to move toward formal employment.
In agriculture, workers are expected to upgrade their occupational skills and make greater use of mechanisation, advanced technologies and digital transformation. The Government’s plan specifically links these measures with the shift from simple manual work to skilled and technically qualified employment.
Skills matter more than simply earning a degree
Training is to be aligned more closely with actual labour-market and business needs, including dual vocational training, practical training and training based on employer demand and specific job positions.
Businesses are encouraged to participate throughout the training process, from designing curricula and organising training to assessing workers and employing them after graduation.
Workers will also be encouraged to retrain and improve digital, artificial intelligence (AI), green and occupational skills, particularly those working in sectors facing rapid automation, technological change and digital transformation.
This approach is intended to narrow the gap between what people are trained to do and what businesses actually need.
Notably, the plan also calls for the development of “professional farmers” and “digital farmers.”
Agricultural workers would receive not only technical training but also skills in using modern machinery, applying technology and organising production along value chains, supporting a more modern, ecological and climate-resilient agricultural sector.
The broader aim is to ensure that workers can adapt as technology changes the nature of jobs and the skills required to perform them.
Skills need to be recognised by the labour market
For occupational skills to become a genuine asset for workers, the plan calls for improved systems for recognising, assessing and standardising skills against national, regional and international standards.
It also promotes stronger links among general education, vocational education and higher education, alongside the development of practical engineers, highly skilled technical workers and new occupations emerging from digital and green transitions.
At the same time, businesses, industry associations and educational institutions are expected to work more closely on workforce forecasting and demand-driven training.
The goal is to reduce the distance between training supply and real-world labour demand.
Technology must translate into higher productivity
Science and technology, innovation and digital transformation are identified as direct drivers of labour productivity.
Alongside investment in technology, the plan calls for attracting and making better use of experts, scientists and high-quality human resources in science and technology, innovation and digital transformation.
The Government’s approach therefore goes beyond simply increasing the number of workers with formal qualifications. It aims to build a labour market in which skills match jobs, technology works alongside people and workers can continuously adapt to change.
From degrees to skills, from low-productivity work to higher-value employment, and from one-time training to lifelong learning, the plan seeks to reshape Vietnam’s labour market around what workers can actually do and the value they can create.
For Vietnam, raising labour productivity increasingly means not just investing in technology, but also ensuring that people have the practical and adaptable skills needed to make that technology productive.
Raising labour productivity key to achieving double-digit growth: PM Hung
VOV.VN - Improving labour productivity and the quality of human resources is essential to achieving Vietnam’s double-digit growth target, Prime Minister Le Minh Hung said during discussions with delegates at the 14th Vietnam Trade Union Congress on June 5.
