6. 182 commune-level civil servants do not meet job requirements
According to the draft Project on training and fostering to improve the quality of commune-level cadres and civil servants in the 2026-2031 period, with a vision to 2040, built by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the quality of commune-level cadres and civil servants has generally improved in recent years, but there are still many shortcomings, especially in terms of compatibility between professional qualifications and job position requirements in the context of operating the two-level local government model.
Data compiled from reports from localities shows that there is still a situation where professional civil servants are arranged not in accordance with their job positions: There are 6,182 people out of a total of 114,834 commune-level professional civil servants with training levels that do not meet job requirements, accounting for about 5.38%.
This situation appears in many fields. At the Offices of People's Councils and People's Committees at commune level, there are 1,79/31,183 cases that are not suitable for expertise (3.78%). In the judicial sector, this number is 189 cases (0.61%); the foreign affairs sector has 112 cases (0.36%).
In the economic, economic - infrastructure and urban departments, some fields also recorded the proportion of civil servants not suitable for job positions such as finance - planning (0.69%), construction (0.64%), industry and trade (0.55%), agriculture (0.78%), environment - land (0.44%).
Cannot just study to get enough degrees
The Ministry of Home Affairs sets a goal to urgently re-train and foster more than 6,000 civil servants who are being arranged in job positions that are not suitable for their expertise.
According to the draft Project, the overarching goal is to improve professional capacity, nghiệp vụ and public service performance skills for commune-level cadres and civil servants, ensuring the effective operation of the two-level local government model in the new period.
Training and fostering are closely linked to the requirements of modern national governance, digital governance, decentralization, delegation of power and the practical needs of each job position.
In the 2026-2027 period, the Project focuses on professional and nghiệp vụ training for cadres and civil servants who are assigned new tasks or have training qualifications that are not suitable for the job position.
According to the roadmap, each year about 50% of commune-level civil servants under this category will be sent for in-depth training and fostering according to each industry and field, ensuring to meet the requirements of task implementation at the grassroots level.
In the 2028-2031 period, the Project aims to develop commune-level human resources in a synchronous manner, focusing on areas such as digital transformation, science and technology, smart governance, law, land, environment, finance, education, and health.
By the 2040 vision, the goal is to build a streamlined, professional, and modern team of commune-level officials and civil servants, capable of serving people and businesses, meeting the requirements of effective and efficient local governance.
From the perspective of training and developing human resources, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Do Phu Tran Tinh - Director of the Policy Development Institute (Vietnam National University HCMC) - believes that there should be a clear roadmap in improving the quality of commune officials.
In the medium term, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Do Phu Tran Tinh emphasized the requirement to retrain both old commune officials and district officials transferred down, to ensure that they meet the job position and new tasks.
Training needs to closely follow specific standards, suitable to the requirements of each position, focusing on practical skills, creative thinking and problem-solving capacity in practice.
When the commune scale is 4-5 times larger than before, the population increases, and more work arises, it requires officials to be more deeply trained, especially skills in applying technology and artificial intelligence" - Assoc. Prof. Dr. Do Phu Tran Tinh assessed.
He also said that leadership agencies need to develop policies to encourage officials to study, and at the same time strengthen coordination between training institutions so that the content of training is practical and closely follows job requirements. "Learning must go hand in hand with practice, it cannot just be learning to have enough qualifications" - he said.
