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The Director of the General Department for Vocational Training, Duong Duc Lan, has welcomed revisions to Vietnam's Law on Vocational Training, saying they will improve the quality of the workforce.

Few enterprises in Vietnam compare with vocational training provided in other countries, he said, adding that regulations on the obligations of employers were lax in this area.

There is also a strong need for greater co-operation between training schools and businesses, Lan said, urging both sides to take proactive measures to address the issue.

At a recent workshop in HCM City on the revised regulations on vocational training, Nguyen Thanh Hiep from HCM City's Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that schools needed to make greater efforts to tailor their programmes to the needs of employers and take more measures to offer qualified students to businesses.

Director General of Bosch Vietnam Vo Quang Hue says businesses that invest in vocational training should be provided with tax incentives.

He said that innovative training schemes would help workers meet job requirements.

Deputy General Director of Truong Hai Automobile Company Pham Van Tai agrees that graduates from vocational training schools were usually required to undergo further training in the workplace.

"This reveals the fact that training programmes at schools are not practical enough," he said, suggesting that Laws on Vocational Training needed to make training institutions more accountable in making their students valuable to the market.

Principal of Dung Quat Vocational College for Engineering and Technology Tran Ngoc Chau said that under current regulations, enterprises are obliged to provide Government agencies with information about their demand for employees and the need for training.

The regulation is vague and doesn't provide any mechanisms to connect businesses with vocational schools, he said.

He explained that at present, only some Government agencies, including the Vocational Training Department, verified training quality, meaning there were few incentives for the private sector to improve the workers' competencies.

Many firms blame schools for the poor quality of human resources, but they continue to employ untrained workers and pay them as much as trained workers, he said.

"This makes people think that they don't have to waste time and money to follow a 2-or-3-year training course and then are paid the same as untrained ones," he said, noting that this was an obstacle for schools in recruiting students.

In an effort to provide a more comprehensive legal framework, the General Department of Vocational Training is calling for submissions to revise the current law which took effect in 2007.

The revised draft law is expected to be submitted to the Government in 2014.

At present, Viet Nam has over 1,320 vocational training institutions.