IT‌ ‌Engineers‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌midst‌ ‌of‌ ‌Japan’s‌ ‌Recruitment‌ ‌Drive‌

Recently, many Japanese tech companies continuously hire Vietnamese employees, creating opportunities for the youth who want to work and live in the country of cherry blossoms.

On August, FPT University held an exchange meeting between Framgia’s representatives, a Japanese IT business responsible for designing, developing software application software, and 26 Japanese language students to find the candidates for the internship at business partners. Not only Framgia, but many Japanese tech companies are also participating in a race of recruitment of Vietnam's market.

So many opportunities, so many dreams

 
According to Mrs. Vu Thi Thu Hang, Head of Framgia’s Consultancy, 26 Japanese language students from FPT University will do their internship at 3 business partners, namely Sublime, Karakami and Moopon in Japan. 

Bui Nhat Thuy, one of the 26 students, said that she studied linguistics so the receptionist job was suitable for her. Meanwhile, Nguyen Nhan, a Junior told us that Japan had been her dream country to work at for a long time. “I will work strenuously and learn proactively during my time in this country,'' said Nhan.

Along with Nhan, Nguyen Thinh Quynh Na explained why Japan was her internship destination, which was the longing for an ideal environment to learn, communicate and improve vocabulary. Besides, the Japanese side also offered favorable conditions for FPT University students like providing living costs, accommodation, flight tickets.

Mrs. Hang added, during the internship in Japan, Framgia’s business partners will always be there to help, guide and train the interns the essential know-how when working with Japanese. “The interns can always share their problems while in Japan,'' said Mrs. Hang.

In the next year, Quynh Na hopes to get accustomed to the culture, lifestyle and technology here. After finishing the internship, she will be returning to the university to continue her study. “If there’s a chance to come back to Japan, I will take it, and stay there for a long time,'' she said.

Different from other candidates, Nguyen Thi Linh Chi already experienced life in Japan for six months, and now she wants to return there to enrich her knowledge, vocabulary. “I will strive to finish work with my capacity. During the internship, I want to experience more of the culture, traditions, cuisine and landscapes here.”, Linh Chi said. 

To become an intern for the Framgia’s program, 26 Japanese language students from FPT University had to go through the application evaluation process and the interview round of the companies. Everyone hopes that this will be a great start and help them stay strong on their road to the country of cherry blossoms.

In recent times, the increasing collaboration between Japanese and Vietnamese companies, especially in the IT industry, has prompted a large wave of Vietnamese people studying and working in Japan.

After graduation, many Vietnamese graduates decided to stay in Japan to start up their businesses and during that journey, they believed that the Japan-Vietnam developed relationship had made beneficial conditions for the two countries’ trading and business.
NAL Japan is one of Vietnamese IT businesses in Japan. Nguyen Tuan Anh - Director of NAL Japan studied abroad in Japan in 2002. Nurturing a goal of establishing his own company right after graduation, Tuan Anh worked for two Japanese IT companies to accumulate experiences and necessary skills. During 4 years working in the first company, Tuan Anh used the opportunity to learn, experience all positions from an engineer to a manager. At the second one, he was working while the company’s in its infancy and responsible for brainstorming ideas for their products.

Developing, managing the technical department and designing, refining the products, he gained a chance to practice growing a business area, establishing a business. In 2013, Tuan Anh and his friend founded NAL Vietnam and NAL Japan in late 2014.
The time Tuan Anh founded his company was also when the economic cooperation relations between Japan and Vietnam improved significantly, especially in IT. The young entrepreneur hoped that along with Japanese government’s support, the gradual shift of Japanese companies from China to Vietnam would also increase the needs of Japan for Vietnam in IT. When the needs keep rising, finding high quality staff to provide services to Japanese customers is becoming more urgent. After 4 years established, Tuan Anh’s NAL company group has developed into 6 subsidiary companies, with offices in 2 major cities in Japan, namely Tokyo, Nagoya and 3 major cities in Vietnam, namely Hanoi, Da Nang and Hue.

With a view to connecting and supporting Vietnamese in Japan, building an energetic, competent, reputed and united community, three young people - Tran Thanh Thuy, Le Viet Gia Khanh and Ta Viet Phuong - founded Vietnamese Professionals in Japan (VPJ). VPJ proactively created forums, useful playgrounds for Vietnamese young people in Japan to exchange work information and foster their careers.

Career Sharing, a forum for career sharing, is an annual event organized by VPJ, inviting successful people as guest speakers to share their experiences and ideas about opportunities to develop Vietnamese people’s careers in Japan. Two years operated, the event received positive feedback and responses from Vietnamese community working in the land of rising sun. Additionally, VPJ also gained support from Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO).

According to VPJ founders, when Japan-Vietnam relations prospered, the Vietnamese community in Japan also grew tremendously, reaching almost 300.000 people. This was the favorable situation for Vietnamese business and investment in Japan. Since, regarding providing services only, Vietnamese people in Japan already had quite a large market.

Embracing the fierce recruitment drive

 
As Japan is showing a lack of manpower, its government brings out policies supporting foreigners to start up and work here.
Information Technology plays a vital role in Japan’s growth strategy. However, recently, its economy was faced with a supply-demand imbalance of labour force in the technology-science industry. One of the solutions proposed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan was to encourage global talent acquisition in IT.

METI, in a research on June 2016, estimated the country’s IT labour force to be around 910.000, 171.000 short of demands. The agency predicted that the supply labour in IT can decrease dramatically in 2019. In 2020, Japan would be in shortage of 369.000 IT engineers and the number would reach 789.000 in 2030.

The severe lack of IT technicians in Japan led to a competitive situation among businesses to secure this rare workforce. This fight was not limited in IT companies only but also spread among other areas where high-quality staff were needed. The global talent acquisition that METI suggested, was viewed by professionals to be a huge opportunity for Vietnam, where around 55.000 IT technicians graduated from universities and colleges every year.

Spoken at 2018 Vietnam IT Job Fair in Japan, FPT Software President Hoang Nam Tien, was confident that with competent workforce, stable political system, fast growing economy, Vietnam is the key to Japan’s shortage of IT manpower. He cited insufficient statistics showing that Vietnam currently had 20.000 workers serving Japanese market in Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).

In FPT Software only, around 1.000 staff work in five offices in Japan and more than 5.000 staff in Vietnam are doing projects for Japanese customers. In 2017, FPT Software’s income in this market was 3.599 billion dong, accounting for 58% of its total income and growing 26% more than last year. In 2018, to meet the growing needs of Japanese customers, FPT Software recruited more than 2.000 staff for this particular market.

From 2014 onwards, Vietnam has been the second biggest partner of Japan in software and service outsourcing. Now there are more than 10 software businesses of Vietnam invested in establishing another company/branch in Japan. In addition to attracting global skilled labor, recently, Japanese businesses have cooperated with neighboring countries’ universities in training high-quality IT workforce for Japanese market. 

In Vietnam, Framgia founded a subsidiary company in October 2012, with over 900   young engineers worldwide like Japan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Russia and Vietnam.

Since 2014, Framgia has implemented cooperation programs with three top-notch IT universities in Vietnam (namely Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Da Nang University of Science and Technology and The College of Technology - member university of Vietnam National University, Hanoi) to provide teaching and support for graduates seeking jobs in Japan. Participating in this program, all students have JLPT Level N3 and above and wish to work for Japanese companies. Each student will have two lessons every week with all lessons and lectures in Japanese. Most of the participating lecturers are Japanese IT technicians with years of experience.

According to Framgia, until now, there has been 800 students following this program. Framgia wants to cooperate with the three mentioned universities to reach 1000 participants, akin to 1000 future IT engineers.

Along with the training program, Framgia also collaborates with universities to hold career festivals for IT students. After being selected, these students will continue their study at universities for a year and a half to 2 years in order to be properly prepared of knowledge and skills before working in Japan.