Education in Vietnam’s schools is about to change its focus, and this is great news for employers because more and more school leavers will be graduating work-ready.
Education and respect for teachers are traditional values embedded in the culture of the Vietnamese people. They live in a society that values gifted students and has schools in every commune, district, and town. Parents pay large percentages of their wages on schooling and expect their children to succeed. Education in Vietnam’s schools is about to change its focus from a centrally controlled knowledge-based system into one that teaches students how to put knowledge into practice.
This is great news for employers because more and more school leavers will be graduating work-ready. The education overhaul acknowledges the new philosophy: What can students do, and how? In the past, the education system has solely been driven by information, leading to narrow, repetitive, learning and teaching methods. The new approach aims to include a more flexible curriculum and develop capacity.
In 2017 the Government high school exams are offered in five subjects, with three mandatory exams in mathematics, literature, and foreign language (English, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, or Russian). The changes to education will see an expansion of subject areas in the years to come. There has already been a decision to start teaching computer science at an early age, which will put Vietnamese ICT education way ahead of other countries in Asia.
The Vietnamese Government also reports that it has implemented OECD guidelines for English language skills, which means high school graduates must achieve an internationally recognised and standardised test of English when applying for university entry at home or overseas. So now with languages firmly on the agenda, private language centres offering English as a second language are in high demand in the capital cities.
Companies looking for offshore staffing opportunities in Vietnam will find hard working staff with English skills, as well as their IT and engineering qualifications. Offshoring staffing initiatives can be expanded to accommodate the talent available in Vietnam, and team leaders will likely have equivalent qualifications to on-shore staff. Ho Chi Minh City leads the way in producing skilled workers, with 38 university campuses in the city, including the University of Information Technology, which offers degrees in information systems, information security, software engineering, digital media, and more. Ho Chi Minh also hosts the main campus of Australia’s’ RMIT University (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). RMIT offers three engineering degrees and one IT degree, all of which are internationally accredited.\n\nThe future is looking bright. OECD statistics released in 2016 show that Vietnam ranked 8th in the world for science, above the UK (15th), the US (25th), and Australia (14th).
The Ministry of Education and Training’s Higher Education Renovation Project (2006-2020) recognises the country’s socio-economic development requirements, and people's learning needs, including vocational education. This will lead to the availability of more workers with skills in communications and technology.
One of the project goals is to “develop educational programs in order to meet the learning demands of the entire population” by introducing ongoing, lifelong training to all Vietnamese people. With the world’s technology needs always changing and improving this can only be a good thing for Vietnam, and the outsourcing industry.\n\nOffshoring staffing initiatives can be expanded to accommodate the talent available in Vietnam, and team leaders will likely have equivalent qualifications to on-shore staff.
Ho Chi Minh City leads the way in producing skilled workers, with 38 university campuses in the city, including the University of Information Technology, which offers degrees in information systems, information security, software engineering, digital media, and more.
