A new blog post from the World Bank asks, “Is Vietnam’s workforce ready for the future?… Are Vietnam’s workers ready to move from low to high tech production? From rice to robots?”
These are all extremely relevant questions facing Vietnam today, and it’s something we often ponder about at VNHELP as well. While we are optimistic about Vietnam’s development, we are also tepid. A common critique leveled at Vietnam is that it’s education system is antiquated, placing too much of an emphasis on memorization and not enough on creativity and critical thinking. As true as this may be, we also think this is just one of many problems the Vietnam’s education authorities address. To have better workers, we believe that you also need good mentors. You need experienced people who are willing to cultivate younger workers, and you need young workers who are willing to share their experiences with their peers. But according to many whom we’ve conversed and consulted with, Vietnamlacks a culture of mentorship. The education structure, as well as the competitive businesses environment, promotes a race to leapfrog to the top rather than an ethic of teamwork, both vertically and laterally.
So, we believe for Vietnamese workers to be globally competitive, it is not just a matter of enhancing technical and cognitive skills, it is also a question of whether Vietnam can get into the right mindset for success.
What are your thoughts?
Video from the World Bank
Photo from the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs via Flickr (Creative Commons)