Do Kim Dung, vice chairman of the Viet Nam Advertising Association (VAA), said the domestic advertising industry was still the youngest sector in the country, with a lifespan of only 10 years.
"By 2008, the entire ad industry had nearly 5,000 companies with nearly 10,000 employees. This is a modest number as compared with the country's number of 350,000 enterprises," Dung said.
Up to 90 per cent of the staff had never received professional training, he said.
Dung said the VAA had set a goal in 2001 when it was established to build an institute that would specialise in personnel training for the advertising industry.
As a result, the Advertising Research and Training Institute (ARTI) came into being in June 2007, and has just finished its first three-month course with the participation of over 30 trainees.
The institute recently signed a training co-operative contract with the Singaporean IAS in hopes of quickly improving the quality of the ad industry's workforce.
Under the programme, nine courses would be organised in Ha Noi and Da Nang cities and Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces.
Independent market watchdogs said VAA's efforts in training were commendable, but the number of trainees at the ARTI was still much lower than the industry's demand.
With the current pace of development, Viet Nam is expected to have an estimated 500,000 advertising companies by 2010.
If one-fifth of those companies required at least one manager, the number of advertising managers would climb to about 100,000, experts said.
Because of this, experts said authorised agencies needed to develop several strategies to resolve the workforce shortage.
Domestic advertising companies often train their employees themselves because Viet Nam lacks specialist advertising schools.
Poor professional standards are hindering the development of the entire domestic advertising industry, experts have said.
Vietnamese advertising companies now have only a 30 per cent share of the industry's total turnover, with the remainder taken by foreigners. They would continue to meet difficulties in competing with foreign businesses, experts said.
Experts have suggested the Government introduce appropriate policies to encourage the setting up of more professional training centres in some localities in the country. (VNS)
Catalogues>> Business
