According to the Foreign Labour Management Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Republic of Korea’s Government has received more than 10,000 guest workers this year, including 9,000 from Vietnam.

To date, Vietnam has dispatched nearly 16,000 workers to the RoK, proportionally, Vietnamese workers constitute the highest numbers of foreign workers sent to this country and many other markets seem to hold promising labour export prospects, especially when Vietnam joins the World Trade Organisation (WTO). However, requirements for education levels, skills and labour disciplines have become stricter in previous periods.

The Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs in HCM City says that currently, many new markets want to receive overseas workers but their demands for professional skills, experience and foreign language qualifications are rather high.

While most Vietnamese workers have a secondary level of education, a recent survey shows 73.7 percent of over 1,207 labourers working abroad are at university level and only 30 percent are trained at vocational training centres, 20-30 percent lack foreign language skills. Therefore, Vietnamese guest workers find it difficult to compete with labourers from other countries or access foreign labour markets.

Vice President of the Vietnam Labour Export Association Nguyen Xuan An acknowledges that the weaknesses of Vietnamese labourers are foreign language skills, approach to work, and discipline. Labour export enterprises should invest in improving their human resources. It is necessary to provide labourers with foreign language skills, professional skills, and a basic knowledge of law and culture. The Government will approve a vocational training strategy to select ten major schools to conduct training activities till 2010. The schools will update Vietnamese labourers with training activities designed to meet the requirements of employers.