Digital University To Plug Vietnam's Digital Skills Gap
- By DWFTrends editors
- September 26, 2022
Vietnam's economy is growing quickly, and digital transformation is playing a significant role. However, the country faces a skills gap in the IT sector. Vietnam produces 40,000 IT workers every year, but the country needs 100,000.
In fact, Vietnam has grown to become one of the top destinations for tech outsourcing. A 2020 report revealed that 43.8% of engineers in Vietnam work for companies that outsource their tech development. As such, many tech talents in the country increasingly prefer to work for foreign companies instead of local ones.
In a recent meeting at the Vietnam National University HCM City (VNU-HCM), Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung proposed the solution to the digital skills gap would be the creation of a digital university.
According to him, the digital university should be entirely online, allowing students to study at their own pace and convenience.
A 50-50 digital university
Before the meeting, a group of universities and education establishments initiated a project on digital university development. The model was piloted by VNU-HCM, VNU-Hanoi, Da Nang University, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, and PTIT (Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology).
VNU-HCM director Vu Hai Quan said this model was developed in response to the fourth industrial revolution. The digital university will use technology in all aspects, from teaching and learning to management and administration.
Currently, there are about 7,000 IT students at their university. Each year, they produce 5,000 workers for the IT sector and related sectors (mathematics, electronics, telecommunications, mechanical engineering, and automation). However, most of these graduates move to the US and Singapore because of higher salaries.
The meeting also highlighted that the current training establishment still has issues. Facilities and resources at the university lack the much-needed support for students. For example, connectivity remains limited, strategic research programs are still lacking, and the school’s scientific journal doesn’t follow international standards.
Going fully online
Minister Hung said that a 50-50 model, where 50% of universities teach online and 50% don’t, is not ideal. Instead, he said a 100% digital university is the way to go, adding that such a university could be independent of the existing university group.
“There are many good digital platforms that serve the teaching and learning of foreign languages. Why don’t schools think of teaching English 100% online?”
Hung suggested that VNU-HCM allows students to study English themselves and control the output quality by hiring foreign organizations to appraise students’ skills.
Many foreign universities around the globe have been offering online courses for years. When the pandemic hit, more and more educational establishments were forced to go online. Universities became even more creative, using platforms such as Zoom and Google Classroom to engage students.