South Korea tops with 6.91 points followed by India with 5.76 and Malaysia with 5.59, Chung Ngoc Que Chi of the Ho Chi Minh City Technical and Economic College listed these numbers in a presentation at a forum on enhancing Vietnamese workers' skills held in Hanoi on Friday and Saturday.

She also cited a survey by the World Bank and the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) of 350 businesses in production and services in Hanoi, HCMC and neighboring provinces, which showed that 66 percent of businesses employed foreign laborers and 36 percent of domestic businesses were dissatisfied with the quality of education and training of Vietnamese human resources.

Chi said Vietnam suffers in terms of both quality and quantity, with shortcomings in foreign language and IT skills and ability to use technologies.

She blamed it on the large gap between the country's vocational education and the market's requirements, and called for forging close ties between schools and businesses for training.

Nguyen Van Binh, head of the Communist Party's Central Economic Committee, said Vietnam needs to create a significant change in awareness of human resource quality for achieve practical changes. "If we have quality human resources, we won't be afraid of [setting] any goal."

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc listed three things Vietnam needs to ensure to develop its human resources.

Firstly, vocational education should closely track market needs, a balance should be struck between supply of and demand for skilled workers and there should be close links between vocational schools and businesses through policies to encourage the latter to contribute to training, he said.

Secondly, vocational education needs to meet international standards so that students have the necessary technical and soft skills to face the challenges of economic integration, he pointed out.

Thirdly, the country needs to improve its forecasting ability to grasp and predict quickly the demands of businesses and the economy, he said. "Don't provide training in things people don't need."

Businesses need to participate in developing training programs and providing training and accept trainees, he said.

Schools need to help their lecturers learn new skills from businesses, he said, promising preferential policies to benefit vocational schools and businesses.

It is required to raise the awareness of society, families, students, businesses, and social organizations of the need for skilled human resources, he said. "Skills are very important. If they have skills, human workers will never become redundant even if robots are highly developed."

Only 12 percent of Vietnam’s 57.5 million-strong workforce are highly skilled, according to recruitment firm ManpowerGroup.