The tourism and hospitality industry will be one of the top 12
employers in Ho Chi Minh City by 2020, according to the Centre for
Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information.
Enterprises in the tourism and hospitality industry in the city will
need 21,600 more employees each year, Tran Anh Tuan, the centre’s
standing deputy head, said at a workshop held on August 30 in the city
by the municipal Department of Education and Training,
The city has
56 training schools including universities and vocational schools that
train tour guides and personnel for hotels and restaurants, Tuan said,
adding that however, the number of graduates from these institutions
only meets 60 percent of demand.
According to the Vietnam National
Administration of Tourism, the industry needs nearly 40,000 new staff
nationwide each year, but tourism and hospitality schools only turn out
15,000 per year.
Tran Van Hung, rector of the Saigontourist
Hospitality College , said that his college has received many
inquiries from tourist companies, hotels as well as restaurants. Of the
college’s 757 students who graduated this year, 717 have already found
jobs, he said.
Nguyen Viet Anh, head of the Department of Culture,
Sports and Tourism’s travel division, said that many tourism companies
in the city need tour guides fluent in Russian, Korean, Japanese, French
and Thai languages. They end up hiring foreigners for their tours,
according to Anh.
Tourism and hospitality schools should pay
attention to providing training in these languages in addition to
English, he added.
Last year, the city had 818 travel companies,
1,724 hotels and inns with 41,449 employees, Anh said, adding that this
indicates a staff shortage, especially at the managerial level.
Furthermore, nearly 45 percent of tour guides and 85 percent of
receptionists at hotels and restaurants have weak foreign language and
professional skills, Tuan said.
Pham Ngoc Thanh, deputy head of
the City Department of Education and Training, said that establishing a
council manned by rectors of tourism and hospitality teaching
institutions in HCM City could improve the quality of human
resources training.
The council can help schools connect with employers to ensure jobs for graduates in the sector, he said.-VNA