Sociologist education and training

According to the comprehensive plan to develop the IT human resources, Vietnam needed 1 million workers in the IT field in 2020. Yet the reality shows that there are only 600,000 IT students being trained in 400 higher educational institutes and 8 key IT training centers nationwide. Statistics from the Institute of Information Technology Strategy (under the Ministry of Information & Communications) show that 72 percent of IT students lack practical experience, while 42 percent are weak at team work. Only 15 percent of IT graduates satisfy the demands of employers. Vietnam now has over 700 IT companies working in key fields of the IT industry, including 220 foreign ones. They mostly locate in major cities or software parks. Notably, despite a high job potential, the AI field still attracts little attention from both learners and trainers. There is no formal university department or school to specifically provide tertiary education in this field. Most curriculum focus on software developing, which is a rather old trend of the previous decade. This calls for a serious curriculum redesign to answer the current needs of IT companies, both domestic and international. There should be an establishment of AI departments in universities or the development of such majors as computer vision, natural language processing, Big Data, robotics. Tertiary educational institutes should cooperate with IT businesses for internship programs, career guiding fairs, academic challenges, and training equipment provision (like server clusters, computing clusters, GPU, robots, IoT devices). Experts voiced that in order for HCMC to own sufficient core AI human resources, the municipal authorities must first identify the market needs and the ability to apply research result in reality. They then have to actively link the development of smart city, innovative urban areas with the growth of talented AI employees. These actions will gradually form a complete AI ecosystem so that HCMC …

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The Ministry of Education and Training has decided to pilot German and Korean as the first foreign languages at local schools. Under the decision, German and Korean will be taught as the first mandatory languages for students from third grade to twelve grades on the trial basis from February 9. According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the pilot teaching of German and Korean in some localities have proved good results with the active response from students. This is the reason why these two languages are added to the list of the first obligatory foreign language list. The Ministry of Education and Training has decided to pilot German and Korean as the first foreign languages at local schools The languages will be taught in a total of 1,155 periods of 45 minutes each. Among those, the primary level will have 420 periods and the secondary and high levels with 420 and 315 periods each respectively. The programme is expected to help students improve their communication skills of the two languages to satisfy demand of foreign language interpreters and translators. For German teaching, sixth graders are targeted to achieve level A1 (elementary), nine graders can finish intermediate and 12th graders can reach advanced level. Besides the pilot teaching of German and Korean, it is mandatory for Vietnamese students to learn one of the first foreign languages, comprising English, Russian, French, Chinese and Japanese. Local students can opt for one among these languages to study. Meanwhile, under the Ministry of Education and Training’s regulations, students in Vietnam can also choose one of languages among English, Russian, French, Chinese, Japanese, German and Korea as their second foreign language. This, however, is not compulsory. …

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Korean, German piloted as first foreign language subjects The Saigon Times Students learn English with a foreign teacher. The Ministry of Education and Training has added German and Korean as first foreign language subjects in the curriculum for students from grades three to 12 - PHOTO: VNA HCMC – The Ministry of Education and Training has added German and Korean as first foreign language subjects to the curriculum for students from grades three to 12, a decision that took effect from February 9. Thus, students will have more choices for first foreign languages, the local media reported. The pilot foreign language teaching program aims to help students improve their communication skills in the two languages through listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as language knowledge. A representative of the Ministry of Education and Training said the news that the two languages would be compulsory for graders three to 12 was inaccurate. According to the general education program issued in 2006, students can choose one of the four foreign languages—English, Russian, French and Chinese—as the first foreign language subjects. In 2011, the Ministry of Education and Training added Japanese as another first foreign language subject. …

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