Discuss solutions to improve the quality of human resources to meet business requirements

On the morning of October 17, the Standing Committee of Hai Duong Provincial People's Council held a workshop on "Solutions to improve the quality of human resources to meet the production and business requirements of enterprises in Hai Duong province".

Comrades: Le Van Hieu, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation; Nguyen Thi Viet Huong, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Vocational Education (Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs) chaired the workshop.

Also attending were leaders of the Provincial People's Council, Provincial People's Committee, Provincial National Assembly Delegation, Standing Committee of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee, Provincial People's Council committees, relevant departments, branches, Provincial Social Policy Bank Branch, leaders of universities, colleges, intermediate schools in the province and some enterprises in Hai Duong with high labor demand.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Mr. Le Van Hieu, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, emphasized that Hai Duong is the only province in the country to issue a project on training human resources to serve production and business of enterprises in the province.

Comrade Le Van Hieu assessed that the training of human resources, especially high-quality human resources for production and business of enterprises in the province, has not met the actual requirements. With the annual labor demand of enterprises of about 80,000 people (3 times higher than in 2021), the trained human resources have not met the requirements in both quantity and quality.

Faced with that situation, comrade Le Van Hieu asked the delegates attending the workshop to assess the current situation, difficulties and obstacles in human resource training, and at the same time propose solutions to improve the quality of human resources serving production and business for enterprises.

Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Le Van Hieu also suggested issues for discussion such as: If we want to improve the quality of human resources, how can we improve the quality of the teaching staff? Where do students practice? Are there any difficulties or problems? What recommendations do training institutions make to the Party Committee and authorities to remove difficulties and problems in training?

Comrade Le Van Hieu pointed out the fact that many schools only train 50% of their capacity, many professions cannot recruit students while they already have teachers. The labor, war invalids and social affairs, and finance sectors need to propose solutions to solve this problem.

In addition to vocational training quality, which unit is responsible for training in skills, labor discipline, and teamwork?

In reality, vocational schools cannot invest in machinery and equipment like businesses, so there must be a link between businesses and schools to train students to meet job requirements. Are there any problems with the “handshake” between schools and businesses?

Comrade Le Van Hieu also opened up discussions on supporting learners, how to create conditions for people to send their children to vocational training, what mechanisms and policies are needed?

District-level Vocational Education and Continuing Education Centers need to assess the current situation to see what the real needs are in society for both vocational and general education?...

Vocational school is difficult

Participating in the workshop, vocational training schools in the province raised many difficulties regarding the lack of teachers, facilities, equipment, and machinery for training.

The leaders of Hai Duong Vocational College (Hai Duong City) said that every year the school enrolls more than 500 students, and in reality, it has recruited 90-100%. However, the school faces difficulties such as a lack of teachers and training facilities. The school proposed that the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs pay attention to investing in facilities to meet training needs; support the training of teachers to access new and modern programs to meet the increasing labor needs of businesses. It is recommended that the province consider policies to support students who have the conditions to study a profession; and policies to attract people to study a profession. In particular, it is recommended that businesses create the best possible conditions for students to study.

Also participating in the discussion, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Nguyen Khac Toan asked the schools to clarify whether the promulgation of the training program framework is based on the practical needs of the labor market or not? Does the output quality meet the requirements or not? Why does Hai Duong have many vocational training schools with good output and favorable conditions but low enrollment, what is the problem?

Agreeing with the opinion of Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Nguyen Khac Toan about the difficulty of vocational schools recruiting students, a representative of the College of Waterway Transport I (Hai Duong City) said that the school mainly trains junior high school graduates who are streamed. Currently, due to the huge competition between training institutions, there are too many places and too few places. The streaming of students has not been guaranteed according to the streaming ratio as directed. The mindset of many families who still want their children to go to university instead of vocational school also causes difficulties in recruiting students. The school representative also mentioned that it is possible to recruit 100% of the target but only 50% of the graduates, not to mention the phenomenon of going to vocational colleges to avoid military service.

The representative of the College of Waterway Transport I also pointed out that the relationship between vocational training institutions and enterprises is not sustainable, the human resources sent to enterprises for internships are often through intermediary companies. Currently, many enterprises recruit high school graduates without vocational training, and when they return to the enterprise, they only train one stage, so the quality is not high. In fact, in some countries, enterprises have to pay students to do internships (because they make products), but in reality, this is not the case in Vietnam.

According to a representative of the College of Construction Mechanics (Chi Linh), vocational schools find it difficult to invest in equipment to keep up with businesses, so they ask businesses to help students practice on their equipment. The school builds training programs based on inviting businesses to participate and the program is regularly changed to meet the needs of businesses. Regarding students' sense of discipline and poor teamwork skills, the school has added a communication skills subject...

Businesses complain about labor shortage

At the workshop, Comrade Luu Van Ban, Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, assessed that Hai Duong is seriously lacking human resources for production and business activities of enterprises. In particular, there is a lack of trained human resources, especially high-quality human resources to meet the needs of industrialization and modernization. Hai Duong currently has 12 operating industrial parks, planned to increase to 32 industrial parks by 2030, not to mention the commercial and service sectors outside the industrial parks that require a large number of workers. Every year, the province has 5,000 junior high school graduates participating in both vocational and cultural studies; about 23,000 high school graduates participate in the labor market but only about 2,500 people go to vocational school, this is the reason why enrollment in vocational schools is very difficult.

Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Luu Van Ban informed that Hai Duong currently needs 50,000 workers for industrial parks, expressing concern that the province will soon have to import workers. He suggested that schools coordinate with businesses to send students for internships and training at designated locations.

The Provincial People's Committee is developing a database for recruitment and labor training. At the same time, it will present a support policy for vocational students to join the labor force in Hai Duong province. The province also has policies for demobilized soldiers; support for primary training subjects...

Agreeing with the assessment of comrade Luu Van Ban, a representative of Hoa Phat Steel Joint Stock Company said that this enterprise needs to employ 500-600 workers but is often short of about 10-15% of the workforce. To overcome this, the company cooperates with schools to train students. However, new graduates or those who come to practice often lack professional knowledge and have low sense of discipline, so there is a situation where the enterprise "both teaches and coaxes".

The connection between schools and businesses is still loose, schools do not send lists of graduates, and do not proactively connect businesses for students to do internships. Business representatives suggest that vocational schools need to rebuild their curriculum and training programs to meet the requirements of businesses. The company fully agrees to pay interns if they produce products that meet the requirements.

Biel Crystal Technology Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (An Phat 1 Industrial Park, Nam Sach, specializing in manufacturing phone glass screens) has a need to recruit about 14,000-20,000 workers. The company has been training its staff both on-site and at the head office in China.

However, this company has not been able to access vocational training schools and labor sources in need. The company representative said that the company is willing to train new graduates and pay them salaries.

Sharing the same opinion with many businesses, the representative of CNT Company Limited (Cong Lac Commune, Tu Ky) also complained about the difficulty in recruiting skilled workers. The quality of new graduates does not meet the needs in terms of both expertise and sense of discipline. The company is committed to cooperating with vocational training schools, and is ready to receive students for internships and create jobs after graduation.

A representative of Tinh Loi Garment Company Limited said that the company needs about 9,000 unskilled workers. The company is in need of “fullness”, meaning recruiting enough quantity first, not to mention the quality of the recruited human resources. At the same time, it wants to have a channel to provide labor source data so that it can recruit enough workers for the company.

Hai Duong must be a livable place to attract workers.

After listening to the opinions of representatives of vocational training schools and enterprises, comrade Nguyen Thi Viet Huong, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Vocational Education, suggested that Hai Duong province needs to grasp the direction and solutions to attract and retain human resources. Regarding attracting human resources, it is necessary to increase recruitment and enrollment sources, there should be enterprises that both recruit and enroll students, and train students right at the enterprise.

Comrade Nguyen Thi Viet Huong also suggested that businesses be bolder in widely informing or issuing professional standards for their job positions; and be ready to undertake subjects in the training programs of schools to attract quality labor.

Schools also need to strengthen their connection with businesses. In particular, state management agencies need to soon have policies to support businesses when participating in human resource training; place orders with businesses to train human resources to meet the production and business needs of businesses in the area. At the same time, create a policy mechanism to connect schools and businesses.

Concluding the workshop, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Le Van Hieu affirmed that we must think more to solve the problem of Hai Duong being a livable place to attract more workers to the province, especially practical issues such as social housing and income for workers.

To solve the problem of attracting enough workers, Hai Duong province leaders must work with a higher sense of responsibility. Enterprises, especially foreign enterprises, need to have decent salaries for workers, and corporate culture must be at a good level.

Comrade Le Van Hieu informed that the Provincial People's Council and Provincial People's Committee will work with relevant ministries and branches that have vocational training schools located in the province to jointly solve issues regarding policies for teachers, investment in machinery and equipment, and schools to coordinate with businesses to train human resources to ensure quality.

Comrade Le Van Hieu assigned the education, finance, and social policy banking sectors to further study policies related to human resource training. In about 2 weeks, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council will work with the Provincial People's Committee to focus on resolving difficulties in this work.