Participants at the event. (Photo courtesy of ManpowerGroup Vietnam) During the event, Deputy Minister of MOLISA NguyenBa Hoan said digital transformation has been changing all areas of sociallife, including labour and employment. It will affect the employment structure,requiring employees to change their working methods to be able to adapt andseize opportunities in the market.
Thus, businesses should change the traditional way ofoperation to fit a digitally transformed society and the Governmentshould make flexible and timely decisions and digitise management,Hoan suggested.
According to Hoan, the impact of the COVID-19pandemic has been a factor accelerating the process of digitaltransformation in the field of labour and employment in Vietnam.
However, Vietnam is also facing challengesin labour quality because workers with degrees and certificatesat higher level account for just over 11% of the total workforce, as perManpowerGroup’s research.
At the same time, the country's labour productivity is lowerthan that of many countries in ASEAN besides limited English skillsof labourers, Hoan said, adding that workers with limited skills will be more vulnerableto the risk of job loss under the impact of new technology and sciencedevelopment.
Meanwhile, the increasing application of digital technology, smartdevices in production and business activities is posing challenges to Vietnam's low-skilledlabour market.
"The abundant and cheap labour source will not be a factorcreating competitive advantages and attracting foreign investment. Vietnam mayalso be under pressure in job creation and will face an increase inunemployment or underemployment because of its large population but low qualityof labour," he said.
In order to develop the labour market to adapt to the digitaltransformation process, over the years, the MOLISA and its units have implementedmany solutions, including the application of technology and digitisation inconnecting labour supply and demand, strengthening the consulting and jobplacement activities of employment service centers across the country and givingpriority to improving vocational skills for workers to meet new requirements.
Andree Mangels, General Manager of ManpowerGroup Vietnam saidtechnology is constantly evolving and so will the digital skills of workers.Employers need to adopt an agile approach to employee skilling and createlong-term learning strategies that enable their workforce to do jobs that existnow and those that will be created in the future.
Participants at the event agreed that under the dual impacts ofthe digital age and the COVID-19 pandemic, the future of work for Vietnam willwitness significant evolution in terms of workers and the workplace.
“Major trends like the growing importance of contingent workers,companies’ effort to rebuild employee capabilities via skill developmentprogramme, and the rising of hybrid work model in the new normal will takeplace,” Nguyen Xuan Son, Country Operations Manager, Staffingand Outsourcing services, ManpowerGroup Vietnam said.
Nguyen Thi Nga, representative of World Bank on employment,emphasised the importance of digital skills. "This is an importantrequirement for workers in the context of constantly changing work patterns andnature," she said./.
VNA
