IT students of universities and colleges in HCM City and other provinces learn about the recruitment demands of businesses. — VNA/VNS Photo Tiến Lực

HCM CITY — Only 35 per cent of information technology students who find jobs upon graduation can meet employers'  requirements, a workshop heard in HCM City on Thursday.

The "Leading trend to firmly step into the future” workshop was held to discuss job opportunities in the IT industry by the city’s Quang Trung Software Park.

Phạm Thị Kim Phượng, deputy director of the park, said the demand for human resources is increasing steadily in the industry, with software development having among the highest demand.

But training institutions are unable to meet this demand, she said.

“The severe shortage of human resources in the IT industry is a difficult problem for both businesses and schools.”

Around 65 percent of IT graduates need to be retrained for three to six months to meet employers’ requirements, according to a 2023 report on Việt Nam's IT market done by IT recruitment network and ecosystem TopDev.  

Thái Hoàng Danh, chief delivery officer at LARION Consulting and Software Development JSC, said the average number of IT graduates each year is about 16,000, but most of them must be retrained for at least three months to meet job requirements.

About 73 per cent of local IT companies have recently announced plans to recruit a large number of personnel to meet their business expansion plans in 2024.

They will have to recruit about 170,000 employees this year.

The survey shows that about 41 per cent of enterprises in two big cities HCM City and Hà Nội reached 100 per cent of their recruitment plans last year.

Recruitment demand in the two main labour markets is still very high, with the highest recruitment demand in trade and sales (accounting for 39.3 per cent) and IT (accounting for 13.2 per cent).

Nguyễn Ngọc Anh Thư, Associate Director, Brand & Creative, Marketing of TopCV Việt Nam said it is necessary to improve human resources quality.

About 75.8 per cent of the enterprises plan to increase the number of employees, especially in trade, sales and software to foster their businesses, she said.

The country’s IT industry only has a workforce of 530,000.

The number of IT students enrolled annually at domestic colleges and universities is around 50,000 - 57,000 people.

According to experts, digital transformation and green transition trend continues strong growth.

Digital technology has become an important factor in the value chain of businesses, leading to increasing demand for human resources in the IT industry.

The explosion of technologies such as AI, blockchain, metaverse and big data, brings huge opportunities and also challenges to employers and workers in the IT industry.

Phạm Thị Kim Phượng said the enterprises need to have strategic human resource orientations to attract talented people in the context of human resource shortage and challenges facing technology.

Meanwhile, schools need to design appropriate education curriculum to provide quality human resources for enterprises, she said.

Students should equip themselves with necessary knowledge and skills to quickly adapt to the fast-changing labour market, she added. — VNS