The unemployment rate among graduates is rising: Due to excessive ego!

The Ministry of Education and Training recently released figures showing that up to 40% of graduates are unable to find employment within three months of graduation. Many businesses believe this accurately reflects the current capabilities of Vietnamese students.

Passive and lazy

Ms. Luu Thi Dao, Head of Human Resources and Administration at Tue Linh Co., Ltd., stated that as a company specializing in the production and processing of medicinal herbs, the company's recruitment criteria are somewhat different.

Accordingly, the company needs to recruit an average of around 20 people per month, equivalent to approximately 240-300 workers per year. Particularly in November 2014, due to market expansion and product line development, the company needed to recruit over 100 workers.

Many students remain passive.

“Due to the specific nature of our company's production and business, we require that 98% of applicants must be skilled workers, with only 2% being unskilled laborers. Although we receive many applications each time we post a job advertisement, the success rate is only about 32%. The number of recruits who meet the job requirements immediately after the probationary period is only about 60%,” Ms. Dao stated.

According to Ms. Dao, during the recruitment process, she noticed that candidates often lacked relevant specialized knowledge and soft skills, leading to awkwardness and a lack of confidence in their self-expression (language skills, presentation skills, and demeanor).

“Meanwhile, when we asked interview questions to learn more about the candidates, such as: What do you expect from the position? Why are you applying?… more than half of them couldn't clearly articulate their goals,” Ms. Dao emphasized.

According to Ms. Dao, the reason for this situation is that recent graduates are too passive and lazy, failing to thoroughly research what they need to do for the job and too lazy to learn about the company before attending the interview.

While the knowledge acquired in school doesn't meet the demands of employers, students themselves also fail to address their knowledge gaps. Clearly, all universities have language centers and offer courses on soft skills such as interview skills, teamwork skills, and problem-solving skills… however, according to Ms. Dao's assessment, students are actually very weak and lacking in these areas during the recruitment process.

Explaining the underlying reasons for students' passivity and laziness in not equipping themselves with soft skills, Ms. Dao said that because their lives are now more comfortable, with their parents providing ample financial support for their education, they no longer have the ambition to strive for success as they did before. They view the university period as a time to "relax" after months of strenuous exam preparation, thus allowing themselves to be lazy.

Not yet a craftsman, but I aspire to be a teacher.

Given the nature of construction companies, recruitment needs are constantly fluctuating according to project progress. However, according to Mr. Tran Chung, Head of Human Resources (Lac Hong Investment Joint Stock Company), newly graduated students are currently very weak and lack life skills, teamwork skills, and professional expertise.

Based on the company's recruitment needs, Mr. Chung stated that there are positions where it's difficult to find suitable candidates. For example, the position of occupational safety engineer. After being hired, these engineers will work on construction sites. They must demonstrate the ability to organize and connect groups of workers and technicians to proactively disseminate and equip them with knowledge about occupational safety, rather than simply handling specific workplace safety incidents. However, most recent graduates are unable to perform this task.

"Meanwhile, the ego of recent graduates is too big. They want to 'act like teachers' even before they've started working, while their seniors and colleagues lack the willingness to guide them. Furthermore, the students themselves don't show any desire to learn, always acting as if they already know everything and don't need to learn anymore," Mr. Chung said.

Mr. Chung also gave an example: the company always has a shortage of electrical workers. However, the young graduates, besides having poor training, lack enthusiasm for the job. They don't know where their weaknesses lie and lack the willingness to learn.

"Certainly, if that electrical team assigns him to lay electrical wires, he will be unhappy. They will think that, having received formal training, he should be in a leadership position. If that requirement isn't met, he's ready to quit."

"Clearly, the core issue here is that they lack ambition, they lack responsibility for the tasks assigned to them (even the smallest tasks like laying electrical wires), and they lack enthusiasm and love for the work they have learned, even though their studies haven't always been completed," Mr. Chung emphasized.

According to Infonet