Phuoc Buu
HCM CITY — Vietnamese universities should urgently set up training programmes to meet the huge software testing requirements of international IT companies, experts say.
These services are currently being outsourced to Viet Nam, and there is a lot of potential to be tapped in this sector, according to participants at a three-day conference early this week.
Many IT companies attempted to cut costs due to the 2009 economic crisis, sparking a surge in outsourcing work to Viet Nam, said Dr Nguyen Quoc Hung, chairman and CEO of the US-based LogiGear Corporation.
"The main demand for software testing is primarily coming from outsourcing demand and HCM City has a lot of potential to play a role in this market since it is ranked fifth in list of the top 50 emerging global outsourcing cities [by Global Service Media].
"The key to success is to equip our workforce with the skill sets to compete in this market," Hung told Viet Nam News, adding that this is a task for universities and other training institutions.
But most universities in HCM City have not included software testing as a subject in their IT training curricula. "Many graduates have complained that they had to work on software testing that they weren't trained for in the IT faculty," said Dang Truong Son of the HCM City University of Technical Education.
Son said the IT faculty was prepared to start such training programmes.
Many universities, including HCM City University of Technology, HCM City University of Pedagogy, Hoa Sen University and HUFLIT University, also told LogiGear Corporation in meeting last week that they were prepared to offer training in software testing.
Dong Thi Bich Thuy, director of the IT Centre of HCM City University of Natural Sciences, said: "Not many IT faculties in universities have a good understanding of the significance of software testing and only my university and the HCM City Technology University have this as a separate subject."
According to Hung the demand for software testers to be trained in universities is huge. His corporation's subsidiary, LogiGear Viet Nam, has around 300 software testers but Viet Nam still needs about 10,000 engineers with software testing skills over the next three years.
Speakers at the conference said great care should be taken when providing the training needed. "Technology is changing so rapidly that the engineers will need deep training to keep up with the changes," said Dr Cem Kaner, director of the testing education centre at the Florida Institute of Technology.
BJ Rollison of Microsoft's engineering excellence group said minor mistakes could badly impact product quality. — VNS
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