(VOV) – Whether Vietnamese labourers can seize opportunities in the deeper economic integration in the region or not when the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is established, it heavily depends on their preparations.
According to the roadmap, the AEC will be set up in late 2015. Vietnam is one of members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and has actively proposed initiatives to speed up the establishment of AEC. With a potential market of 600 million people, Vietnam sees a lot of opportunities in trade, investment, services and employment.
According to experts from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), employment opportunities will increase by 10% for Vietnamese workers when the AEC is established. However, to take full advantage of these opportunities, labourers should be fully prepared themselves.
10 % of employment opportunities will belong to whom? Whether Vietnamese workers lose in their home turf or not? Whether the free transition of labourers in the region can worsen the unemployment situation in the context of economic downturn? These questions have been addressed when the establishment of AEC has received extensive media coverage in recent times.
According to ILO Director in the Asia-Pacific region, with the establishment of the community, there will be an increasing demand for skilled workers in the construction, transport, garment and textile, food processing industries.
In addition, the demand for average skilled workers will also grow rapidly while Vietnamese workers are predicted to enjoy better employment opportunities after 2015.
However, at present, Vietnamese workers are considered to have low productivity in the region, just better than Lao and Cambodian labourers.
The country still lack high quality skilled workers in many fields although Vietnam has won at the ASEAN Skills Contest organized recently. The shortage of skilled workers and an abundance of university and college graduates have reached its peak.
Industrial parks (IPs) and export processing zones (EPZs) still encountered difficulties in recruiting employees even though thousands of university graduates have been unemployed. Even in the field of agro-forestry-fishery sector, we still lack skilled workers.
The situation has revealed shortcomings in vocational training in Vietnam which has not kept up with the requirements for development. Therefore, it is likely that Vietnamese labourers can lose in the home turf when career fields are expected to be expanded into 1,000 including accountant, architect, dentist, doctor, nurse, and geologist and tourism-related careers when the AEC is shaped.
The 2014-2015 period will be a short time in the roadmap for setting up the AEC. Therefore, Vietnamese labourers should grasp opportunities in the regional deep integration by making thorough preparations instead of pessimism.
At first, labourers should get sufficient information on the roadmap for the establishment of the AEC, career prospects, workers’ qualifications to work in the region, regulations and conditions for foreigners to work in Vietnam. In fact, labourers have not had any information on benefits and employment opportunities in the transition of labour in the region.
To support labourers, there should be positive changes in vocational training. It is necessary to reform vocational training system to improve the quality of labourers.
For young people who prepare to participate in the labour market, should actively learn about information on career orientations to get better employment opportunities and good income after the AEC is formed.
Đăng ký: VietNam News