Poor IT crippling outsourcing, say software firms

Students look for employment information at the 2008 IT Job Day held in Ho Chi Minh City by NIIT University and Quang Trung Software City Co. in March. Software companies with Vietnamese outsourcing contracts have to retrain even graduates of the country's top institutions as they lack foreign language skills, math abilities and even technical knowledge.

The low quality of Vietnamese IT workers is posing a threat to the growing local software outsourcing market, which the government aims to expand into one of the world's largest. The number of information technology (IT) graduates increases every year in Vietnam, but the quality of training is still poor, reported the Ho Chi Minh City Computer Association (HCA). Vietnam has 390 universities, colleges and training centers specializing in IT education, 43 of which opened in the last 12 months, according to HCA. More than 50,000 new students were admitted into these establishments in 2008, 11,000 more than over the last year. Despite the high numbers, the competence of human resources in the software sector is much lower than other countries, said Nguyen Quoc Hung, director of the Ho Chi Minh City-based LogiGear Vietnam Company. "I'm worried about the quality of IT master's degree holders and engineers, even those that graduate from the country's most renowned universities," said Dong Thi Bich Thuy, director of the University of Natural Sciences HCMC's computer skills training center. Only 10 percent of IT graduates meet the requirements of software companies, Thuy said. People not price Principal of the University of Information Technology in HCMC, Hoang Kiem, said most graduates from IT institutions, including the country's best schools, have two weak points: foreign language skills and the ability to understand new technology. "To become good programmers, students must be good at mathematics and logical thinking, but many of our programming students lack both skills," said director of Nang Dong Communications Company Nguyen Minh Hung. Most companies have to spend between three and six months at least to train fresh graduates to meet company requirements, Hung said. Due to the shortage of qualified human resources, software companies have to poach staff from other businesses. "To make Vietnam the world's largest software outsourcing market, Vietnamese workers have to meet international standards… the cheap price is not a competitive edge anymore," said Phi Anh Tuan, director of the HCMC-based branch of CMC Corporation, a software company, and vice chairman of HCA. Where is Vietnam? Vietnam was the first choice of Japanese companies seeking foreign partners for software outsourcing orders, according to a survey by the Japan Information Technology Services Industry Association last year. The country has also been listed as one of the world's 20 most attractive markets for software outsourcing, according to a recent survey by the US-based consulting firm A.T Kearney. Vo Hong Ky, director of HCMC's HPT Software Center, said local software businesses perform all software outsourcing services, but most orders they receive are related to software testing and data entry. Testing is just a small procedure, according to Dang Quang Minh, director of VnPro Networking Training Center. "We all want high-level orders, but our current capacity does not allow us that," Tuan said. On a scale where one is the easiest task and five is the most complicated service, said director of iNet Solutions Corporation Nguyen Van Hien, Vietnamese outsourcing contractors generally perform level 2.5 services. According to the government's software outsourcing industry development goals, the industry must achieve a 35-40 percent growth rate with sales of US$800 million per year by 2010. The goal aims to make Vietnam one of the 15 most developed software outsourcing industries in the world. Source: SGTT

Story from Thanh Nien News Published: 03 September, 2008, 11:24:20 (GMT+7) Copyright Thanh Nien News