Business representatives admitted that HR, especially quality HR, is the decisive factor behind their companies’ success in international integration.

The matter is more urgent when Vietnam is joining a large number of free trade agreements, including the Vietnam-EU and Trans-pacific Partnership agreements.

Taking advantage of these FTAs requires businesses to attract and develop qualified human resources capable of raising the company’s competitiveness.

The fact is that Vietnam has yet to draw up a comprehensive HR development strategy to meet the requirement of global integration.
 

It was reported at the workshop that on average, 300,000 students graduate from secondary schools each year and over 70% of them are unable to find suitable full-time employment between 12 to 24 months.

Today’s multinational employers are looking for job applicants with core business competencies and exceptional interpersonal skills but unfortunately too many secondary students are not bothering to accrue such skills.

In addition, many graduates lack adequate training in soft skills such as critical thinking and are not sufficiently inquisitive, which are vitally important in the era of regional and international integration, speakers said.

The employment situation is certain to tighten up and become more exacerbated with the realization of the ASEAN Economic Community (ASEAN) by 2015 and other key FTAs most likely to come into effect next year.

Employers today can choose from candidates from all over the globe and landing a good paying job is highly dependent on possession of these core competency skills. 

Representatives of large multinational companies shared the view that global competitiveness starts with human resource advantages.