The wood processing industry is dealing with a shortage of high-qualitylabourers, according to the Department of Processing and Trade forAgro-Forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt Production under the Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development.
The draft industryplan from 2015 with vision to 2025 reported that labourers with auniversity education level or higher currently make up only 10 percentof staff while those with vocational and technical training only make up30 percent.
On average, about 40 percent of theindustry's labourers are seasonal workers who only receive 2-3 months oftraining to meet basic job demands.
Only two Vietnameseuniversities and a handful of vocational forestry colleges train highquality human resources for the sector, including Hanoi ForestryUniversity and HCM City University of Agriculture and Forestry, but thenumber of graduates is too small to meet the country's needs.
The sector is set to boost forestry product export turnover to 9billion USD by 2025, an increase of nearly three times the currentnumber, according to the draft plan. Domestic demand for timber is alsoexpected to increase with the rate ranging from 6 percent to 11 percentannually.
The draft also revealed that untrained human resources result in low efficiency.
The average export value each worker can generate is reported to beabout 10,000 USD per year, much lower in comparison to labourers inother countries such as China (16,000 USD), Malaysia (17,500 USD) andGermany (70,000 USD).
Tran Van Da,director of the Thuan AnTimber Company in southern Binh Duong Province , said the humanresource shortage forces enterprises to provide their own in-servicetraining or pay for outside training.
To improve thesituation, the Department of Processing and Trade forAgro-Forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt Production said that trainingat universities, colleges and vocational schools should focus on meetingthe demand for human resources in terms of both quantity as well asquality.
Collaboration between enterprises and schools isalso important in the provision of training. Schools should base theircurriculum on the specific needs of enterprises.
Enterprises are encouraged to use high technology and modern machinesfor production, which will help raise the quality of products whilereducing manual workloads.
Policies such as grantingscholarships or school fee reductions along with ensuring a reasonablewage and a good working environment are proposed to encourage labourersto pursue a career in the sector, according to the Vietnam Timber andForest Product Association's Nguyen Ton Quyen.
More than 2,500 enterprises are involved in the timber processing industry, employing about 250,000 labourers.
Under the draft plan, the number of labourers working in the industryis expected to increase by 40 percent by 2015 and nearly double thecurrent number by 2025./.
The draft industryplan from 2015 with vision to 2025 reported that labourers with auniversity education level or higher currently make up only 10 percentof staff while those with vocational and technical training only make up30 percent.
On average, about 40 percent of theindustry's labourers are seasonal workers who only receive 2-3 months oftraining to meet basic job demands.
Only two Vietnameseuniversities and a handful of vocational forestry colleges train highquality human resources for the sector, including Hanoi ForestryUniversity and HCM City University of Agriculture and Forestry, but thenumber of graduates is too small to meet the country's needs.
The sector is set to boost forestry product export turnover to 9billion USD by 2025, an increase of nearly three times the currentnumber, according to the draft plan. Domestic demand for timber is alsoexpected to increase with the rate ranging from 6 percent to 11 percentannually.
The draft also revealed that untrained human resources result in low efficiency.
The average export value each worker can generate is reported to beabout 10,000 USD per year, much lower in comparison to labourers inother countries such as China (16,000 USD), Malaysia (17,500 USD) andGermany (70,000 USD).
Tran Van Da,director of the Thuan AnTimber Company in southern Binh Duong Province , said the humanresource shortage forces enterprises to provide their own in-servicetraining or pay for outside training.
To improve thesituation, the Department of Processing and Trade forAgro-Forestry-Fisheries Products and Salt Production said that trainingat universities, colleges and vocational schools should focus on meetingthe demand for human resources in terms of both quantity as well asquality.
Collaboration between enterprises and schools isalso important in the provision of training. Schools should base theircurriculum on the specific needs of enterprises.
Enterprises are encouraged to use high technology and modern machinesfor production, which will help raise the quality of products whilereducing manual workloads.
Policies such as grantingscholarships or school fee reductions along with ensuring a reasonablewage and a good working environment are proposed to encourage labourersto pursue a career in the sector, according to the Vietnam Timber andForest Product Association's Nguyen Ton Quyen.
More than 2,500 enterprises are involved in the timber processing industry, employing about 250,000 labourers.
Under the draft plan, the number of labourers working in the industryis expected to increase by 40 percent by 2015 and nearly double thecurrent number by 2025./.
