ROBOTICS ENGINEERING – RISING DEMANDS IN 4.0 ERA
Although robotics industry in Vietnam is still young and developing, according to experts’ anticipation, in the future, Vietnam will need hundreds, thousands of robotics and automation engineers, especially there are more and more applications related to robots.
Surgery robots are applied in a private hospital in Vietnam.
LACK OF WELL-TRAINED LABOR FORCE
According to Mr. Nguyen Quan, former Minister of Science and Technology, President of Vietnam Automation Association, currently, Vietnam still doesn’t have the labor force that is competent enough for robotics industry. In some universities of technology are there only subjects or faculties about automation, one of the most relevant to robot. “Robotics industry is not just about automation or information technology. In order to have a developed robotics industry, we have to make improvements on communication, information technology; artificial intelligence, mechanical engineering; manufacturing and materials technology, etc. at the same time”. However, we just pay attention to training labor force in information technology, while letting the serious shortage of human resources in mechanical and materials engineering happen for recent years. Even more serious, many universities could not recruit any students for these majors or are forced to stop the programs”, said Mr. Quan.
Speaking about the current situation of Vietnam’s robotics development, Mr. Quan shared that industrial robots are made use of quite widely in Vietnam, but mostly in manufacturing chains of Foreign Direct Investment corporates. Some Vietnamese companies also tried to use robots in manufacturing process but only at a small scale. Due to our limited mechanical manufacture capability, almost all the industrial robots are imported, thus, human resources are only used for controlling robots. Mr. Quan said: “Nowadays, we talked a lot about the industrial revolution 4.0, labor force required for this sector is enormous. If all industries apply artificial intelligence and robots to improve efficiency, product quality, our economy would need hundreds of skillful automation and robotics engineers, which creates millions of new jobs.
BROAD CAREER OPPORTUNITIES, HIGH SALARY
Dr. Dinh Trieu Duong – Dean of Faculty of Electrical and Telecommunication, Vietnam National University, Hanoi – shared that the demand for labor force in this sector is pretty high. Currently, companies are looking for more automation and robotic engineers, who will have chances to work in industrial manufacturing systems requiring handling skills related to artificial intelligence, smart controlling systems, etc.
Being one of the pioneers in developing industrial robot platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Mr. Truong Trong Toai, founders of Robot 3T company, told us: “A lot of undergraduates studying mechanics, mechatronics, automation, etc. are interested in making robots but are not well trained, therefore, it takes us 6-12 months after recruitment to retrain them to work well in the company. However, recruiting the qualified candidates is not easy.
Demand for human resources in robotics industry in Vietnam is rising, however, there aren’t any training programs focusing on this sector in Vietnam
At the Robotics – Mechatronics Technology in Industrial Revolution 4.0 conference recently organized by Ministry of Industry and Trade and Ministry of Science and Technology, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Cao Quoc Hung shared that robotics can be considered as a core component of 4.0 industry with smart factories and fully digitalized enterprises and many other applications in different fields in life.
According to experts’ prediction, in the next 20 years, in Vietnam, robots will become more and more important and indispensable for mankind’s development. Nowadays, industrial robots are developing at a massive pace, however, upcoming trend will be service robots as they can directly support tasks such as household chores, taking care of the elder, etc. or even replace the role of foreign language teachers in universities. Especially, in the near future, automation will be one out of six prioritized sectors of the government, in which robotics industry will be paid most attention to.
Mr. Toai told us that FDI companies attract more highly-skilled technical experts. More surprisingly, seniors of mechanical, mechatronics, automation engineering at universities are also in high demand. The average salary in robotics is higher than many other sectors, depending on specific positions, engineers researching robots can receive up to 20 millions/ month. “The demand of human resources in this sector is very high, in the future, this sector will be really potential. Apart from working in companies, those who have good inventions can develop their own business”, said Mr. Toai.
NEW MAJOR IN ROBOTICS AVAILABLE IN HCMUT- BACH KHOA
In order to prepare labor force for robotics industry in Industrial Revolution 4.0, according to Mr. Quan, first, we need to introduce policies attracting young labor force into robotics industry such as: add new major in robotics in universities, colleges, increase number of admissions in automation, mechanical, alloy and electronics materials in leading technological universities, require all-in-one programs for information technology and mechanical engineering, circuit manafacturing to be introduced, etc.
Although there are still some concerns regarding that using robots for manafacturing process may increase unemployment rate in textile industry, food technology, etc. however, Mr Quan believed that technological revolution also creates more professional jobs, higher working productivity and higher income.
T.U
