Trained and educated

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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A survey conducted by Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc from Vietnam National University – Hanoi reveals that in 10 years from 2009, the number of Vietnamese articles published in international scientific journals increased fivefold (between 1,764 articles in 2009 to 8,234 in 2018). After the introduction of Resolution No.29 in 2013, which promotes scientific research in different fields, only in 2 years from 2017-2018, leading universities in Vietnam possess around 10,000 research result reports announced internationally. Statistics of Web of Science (WoS) and SCOPUS also display that in 2018, the quantity of annual international announcements related to research result reached nearly 10,000, 70 percent of which belongs to tertiary educational institutes. Vietnam National University – Hanoi and Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City are the two with the most articles. Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha commented that since 2014, 23 universities in Vietnam have piloted comprehensive autonomy in operation, in accordance with Resolution No.77 by the Government. This means more organizational-scaled prizes and awards for successful research and published articles. Following that was the implementation of the Law on Higher Education on July 1, 2019. They have become the driving force for bustling scientific research activities among tertiary educational institutes in the country, leading to an impressive breakthrough in both training and researching tasks. As a consequence, in 2019, Vietnamese tertiary education was ranked 68/196 nations worldwide, an increase of 12 positions compared to 2018. 2019 was also the first year that 4 Vietnamese universities appeared in the list of Top-1000 Global Best Universities and 11 in the list of Top-500 Asian Best Universities. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc voiced his opinion that there should be different policies for research groups of different fields. These policies should be sensibly adjusted to ensure the …

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Korean and German are set to be taught to pupils in grades three to 12, alongside other foreign languages such as English, Russian, French, and Chinese. The main contents of the Korean and German language lessons will include topics and basic language skills such as phonetics, vocabulary, and grammar, that are selected in accordance with the cognitive ability of the students and integrated into the development of basic listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. The announcement has immediately provoked a strong reaction from parents, who voiced their doubts about the feasibility of the programme. A number of parents believed their children will become overloaded if both foreign languages are on the syllabus, whilst others raised the question of why the Ministry has chosen Korean and German as opposed to other foreign languages. A representative from the Ministry of Education and Training played down the concerns of parents, saying that the inclusion of the languages as part of universal education for students from grades 3 to 12 is simply a pilot programme at this point. Students will be able to choose one foreign language from the list to study at school, and they will not be required to study two or three foreign languages simultaneously, the representative explained in an interview granted to vtcnews.vn on March 4. The Ministry expects that students will develop their ability to communicate and use foreign languages in an effective manner when they study, thereby helping to meet the demand for human resources during the country’s ongoing international integration process, said the representative. Associate Professor Tran Xuan Nhi, former deputy minister of education and training, said that integrating Korean, Germany, and other foreign languages into the universal education syllabus is a normal occurrence, and parents are “misunderstanding” the Ministry’s policy. “This policy will benefit our students and conform to future trends,” Prof. Nhi …

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