Foreign investors have given equal importance to professional and soft skills while hunting for employees, according to a survey that was released at a workshop in Hanoi on March 6.

The findings were jointly conducted by the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs and the US’s Manpower group, as part of a memorandum of understanding inked between the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the US group.

Scanning though 100 foreign businesses active in consumer goods, electronics and automobile assembling in six cities and provinces nationwide, the survey found most of Vietnamese workers remain weak in soft skills such as team-working, communication and adaptability to new environment.

It also unveiled a worrying trend that a number of foreign direct investment enterprises tend to hire qualified workers from their competitors instead of investing in training new recruits, which could spark an unhealthy pay race.

Since Vietnam integrated globally, foreign-invested firms have given an impetus to its growth. With advanced technologies and human resources management, they have been growing against the global economic turmoil. A mere 5 percent of them incurred losses.

Although the majority of the surveyed enterprises have invested heavily in technologies and more sophisticated production processes, they said they prefer capitalising on low-cost labour – this is forecast to hamper their performance in the future.

At the workshop, delegates voiced the need to launch effective links between universities, colleges, vocational training centres and FDI companies to make a perfect match for their training and recruitment programmes.

According to them, on-the-spot training should be carried out in the firms.-VNA