According to the Da Nang Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the whole city expects to need a total of more than 250,000 employees by 2025. Such sectors as finance, accounting, hotel reception, human resources and business administration will require a large number of employees who are university and higher education graduates.

Da Nang is in need of high-quality human resources with professional skills in the aspects of software and digital content

Besides, candidates are required to demonstrate their professional and soft skills to their recruiters because we are living in the era of technological convergence. In fact, many businesses and units are facing a shortage of qualified staff members.

The former Deputy Director of the city’s branch of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Mr Nguyen Dien, said nearly half of accommodation establishments across the city have been facing difficulties in recruiting managers.

Meanwhile, tour operators have found it difficult to recruit managers and executive supervisors. Also, it is very hard for restaurants and hotels to recruit chefs, directors and managers.

Mr Le Tan Thanh Tung, the Deputy General Director of the city-headquartered Viet Nam Tourism Joint Stock Company Vitours, noted graduates from the tourism faculties of universities and junior colleges in the city have good background knowledge, but they lack foreign language proficiency. Most of them only know basic English, whilst the number of students who are able to speak Chinese, South Korean, Thai and German languages is very low.

According to the municipal Department of Information and Communications, the city is in urgent need of highly qualified and experienced employees for such aspects as mobile application, and e-government and smart city application development; and network security.

Most specially, some of the city’s businesses specialising in providing software and digital content for the USA, Japan, and European countries need to recruit candidates who can manage and develop such international-standard software as Agile, Scrum and CMMi.

Employees at a local IT company

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dao Huu Hoa, Deputy Rector of the Da Nang University of Economics unlined the significance of establishing closer links between universities, junior colleges, intermediate schools across the city and tourism businesses to provide international-standard training programmes for their students in a bid to meet the needs of recruiters.

Mr Hoa also highlighted the importance of greater efforts made by the city-based educational institutions to help their undergraduates acquire professional skills and real experience through their professional training programmes to meet the requirements of recruiters after their graduation.