This chapter presents the summary of the findings, conclusions drawn, and the recommendations offered.
Summary
The respondents of the study included 108 managers from three destination countries and 480 valid working employees from four labor export countries to evaluate competitiveness of Vietnamese labor export in North-East Asia market in comparison with the laborers of selected ASEAN countries.
Majority of the respondents were 18-29years of age, female, with high school degrees, single, with height 1.5-1.6 meter, and weight 40-50kg. The highest percentage of respondents having the age of 18-29 years comprised 71 percent of the respondents. Meanwhile, only eight percent of the respondents were aged 40-50 years and 21 percent were aged 30-39 years. This distribution by age reflects that companies were using younger laborers. Majority of the respondents covering 62 percent were female and only 38 percent were male.
This distribution by gender is common to the nature of work. The sample structure by educational level mainly focused on mostly the unskilled workers;
hence, high school made up 71 percent, college graduate covered 25 percent, and secondary school covered only four percent. The survey was conducted in the garment, production and construction, navigation, and home service sectors;
hence, respondents were mostly unskilled labor, as the nature of the jobs did not need highly skilled labor.
This paper compared the competitiveness of Vietnamese labor export with those of three ASEAN countries: Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.
Indonesiahad the highest level of competitiveness, especially in terms of compliance with labor contract, communication skills, and working attitude.
Meanwhile, Vietnam was lowest in competitiveness, especially in terms of technical skills, working seniority, and communication skills. The Philippines had advantages in technical skills, working attitude, and reputation. Thailandwas similar to Vietnam in technical skills, communication skills, and working seniority which were not their strong points.
The results indicate some gaps between Vietnam and other countries within ASEAN in competitiveness. Vietnamese labors had low education attainment, lacked technical skills, weak in solving skill during working time, weak communication capacity, had difficulties when communicating with colleagues, employers and foreigners, limited working seniority, problem with team-work and adaptability in the workplace in foreign companies, and lack experience about the future jobs. Especially, violation of contract was a weak point of Vietnamese labors affecting
This study also evaluated the perceptions of international employers from Taiwan, Japan and South Korea on Vietnamese, Filipinos, Indonesian, and Thai about competitiveness and the factors affecting their respective competitiveness. Philippines and Thailand were very good in competitiveness in the perceptions of international employers. Vietnamese labors showed some weak points relating to technical skill and compliance with labor contract. They usually ran away although the labor contract had not expired. In addition, no international employers were concerned about performance ratings of previous
employers. More importantly, the qualification requirements by international managers were clearly more important. Hence, the strengths and weaknesses of Vietnamese laborwere shown, along with troubles in the exportation process, and the gaps in quality that Vietnam was trying to achieve.
In addition, the paper determined the impact of factors affecting competitiveness and priority in selecting applicants which were interpreted fully and clearly. According to the regression results based on respondents’
perceptions, the most important factors affecting labor competitiveness are, first, academic performance, followed by communication skills, working attitude, working seniority, and, finally, technical skill.
According to employers’ ranking, the most important factors affecting labor competitiveness are, first, compliance with labor contract, followed by working attitude, working seniority, communication skills, technical skills, and, finally, academic performance. International employers, on the other hand, do not care about the performance ratings by previous employers.
Testing the statistical differencesin the respondents’ perceptions based on socio-demographic profiles resulted in the finding that age did not affect academic performance, technical skills, performance rating of previous employers, working seniority, working attitude, compliance of labor contract and labor competitiveness, except communication skills.
Gender did not lead to differences in competitiveness factors, except in performance rating by previous employers. Marital status does not lead to differencesin competitiveness factors, except performance rating by previous employers. Highest educational attainment leads differences in academic
performance, compliance with labor contract, and labor competitiveness. Height and weight did not lead to differences in competitiveness factors.
This study concentrated on the specific factors perceived to be problems and limitations affecting the competitiveness of Vietnamese labors. These relate to some issues that need to be improved, such as: educational level, technical skills, soft techniques, communication skills, especially language capacity, working seniority, team-work skill, information about cultural, working style of expected destination, and working attitude.
Conclusions
The profile of the respondents’ subjected under study is considered sufficient and reliable enough to arrive at an accurate analysis and evaluation of labor competitiveness.
In the perceptions of international employees, compliance with labor contract is the most important factor influencing their decision in selecting their employees. Working attitude is the second important factor. Technical and communication skills, working seniority have the same level of importance in their perceptions. International employers are not concerned about the performance ratings of previous employers
Japanese employers emphasize communication skill factor as the most important. Working attitude and compliance with labor contracts are the second most important factors, while working seniority is not much important.
Korean and Taiwanese employers have similar opinions that working attitude and compliance with labor contract are the two most important factors.
Next are working seniority, followed by technical skill.
Educational level, technical skill, communication skill, working seniority, and working attitudeare very important factors which influence the decisions of international employers. Comparing with other countries, Vietnamese labors are lowest in competitiveness, especially in terms of technical skills, working seniority, and communication skills.
There are some limitations identified which are related more to educational level, technical skills, solving skill during working time, communication capacity, working seniority, team-work skill, adaptability capacity in the workplace in foreign companies, experience about the future job and working attitude.
Recommendations
The results of this study are envisioned to contribute knowledge to effective and efficient labor management in Vietnam. Based on the analysis of this study, Vietnam’s government must build special action plans to improve competitiveness of Vietnamese labors. For the Vietnamese laborers, this study will help them understand their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, laborers also should know the requirements of international employers, so that they can prepare and study to improve their abilities to easilygain success in the future.
Hence, the Vietnamese government must regularly conduct annual employers’
evaluation surveys to update international managers’ feedback about competitiveness of Vietnamese labors and to decide and plan for necessary improvements.
The more detailed recommendations are as follows:
The Vietnamese government shouldadjust legal systems regarding labor
export policies to prevent violation of contract, such as: (a) Provide stringent punishment on laborerswho violate terms of the contract, especially on runalways.For instance, for minimal violations, punishment could be salary and award deduction or penalty money following labor contract agreements. In case of runaways, related family members will not be accepted to work overseas anymore; (b) Give priority on laborers and their relatives who comply with labor contract; and (c) Build special courses about international working environment in schools and colleges, especiallyfor people who plan to work abroad.
The Vietnamese government should implement plans to improve the educational level of Vietnamese labor by: (a) Opening free or low fee courses for supplementing essential knowledge; (b) Supporting tuition fee for poor people; and (3) Providing supplemental tools for studying, such as: Internet, personal computer, and others.
The Vietnamese government should implement plans to improve the technical skills of Vietnamese labor by: (a) Opening free or low fee courses for supplementing soft techniques; (b) Opening free vocational centers; and (c) Provide training for necessary technical skills for people who plan working overseas.
Several technical skills should be prioritized: (a) Cloth making, including cutting, manufacturing, ironing; (b) Building; (c) Oxyacetylene welding; (d) Cooking; (e) Ship driving; (f) Fishing; and (g) Planting.
Supporting and improving communication skills for Vietnamese labors:
(a) Designing and teaching language courses for learners starting from primary schools. (b) Opening free or low fee language courses with popular languages:
English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and others; and (c) Opening free or low
fee communication class to make applicants more confident when communicating with foreigners.
Enhancing working seniority for Vietnamese labors by: (a) Opening vocational class for practicing; (b) Cooperating with some production enterprises in Vietnam to give applicants a chance to practice; and (c) Increasing team-work skill by providing and giving free or low fee lectures about the legal system, culture, and working styles of country in which they want to apply.
Propagating and training working attitude for Vietnamese labors by designing orientation training about legal issues, damages and potential dangers when labor violate contract. These courses should be delivered by lawyers by giving lectures about expected destinations and the way to solve professional working style Some Vietnamese labors, who had worked overseas, can also give lectures about their travelling and experiences on the differences between Vietnam and other countries, and requirements of international employers.
For better effects of management, government should implement several solutions, such as: (a) Strengthening management for labor export institutions, preventing unfair competition, guaranteeing quality of export labor, and meeting demand of international employers; (b) Supporting labor export institutions in terms of recruitment, training, management and partner verification; (c) Arranging jobs for returning laborers; and (d) Promoting cooperation between Vietnam and other trading partners, especially major labor-import countries.
Good and comprehensive relationships will bring to Vietnam lots of chance for development, competitiveness improvement and a better world.
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