Higher education needs to approach human resource demand: Minister

Vietnam's higher education institutions need to take initiatives in surveying and understanding the supply and demand in the human resource market to improve their training quality, Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha has suggested.

Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha speaks at the conference. (Credit: giaoducthoidai.vn)

The minister was speaking during an online conference, hosted yesterday by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), to sum up the 2016-2017 academic year for third level education.

The aim of the event was to make an objective evaluation on the results achieved in the past school year, while highlighting any weaknesses and causes in order to map out the key tasks in the field of higher education for the next school year.

Improving the need for matching human resource demand, Minister Nha stated that higher education cannot always develop in the direction of training human resource with the traditional strengths of each education facility, but needs to adjust to meet the demands of the market.

Especially, in the context of a rapidly changing world and the trend of the 4.0 Industrial Revolution, the fields of study will quickly change. Consequently, modern higher education must follow a market-driven approach, he affirmed.

According to the MOET, by the end of the 2016-2017 school year there were 235 universities and institutes across the country, plus 37 research institutes with doctoral degree training, 33 colleges of pedagogy and two pedagogical secondary schools. There are over 1.76 million students following their studies at universities and pedagogical schools, while over 105,800 students are studying their master training, in addition to about 15,000 doctoral trainees.

Reports from the ministry also showed that in the academic year 2016-2017, higher education has achieved positive results, as State management over higher education has been significantly reformed through the review, development and issuance of new documents that strengthen the autonomy of schools.

National level framework has been enacted, quality assurance accreditation has been strengthened and many programmes and institutions of higher education have been accredited with national and international standards. Meanwhile, high quality and joint training programmes have contributed to enhancing the competitiveness of the young labour force in the international integration period.

The national high school exam 2017 continues to be renewed to reflect the scientific and rational target towards ensuring fairness for contestants and has thus far received wide support from the community.

However, there are still drawbacks in the pilot implementation of university autonomy, such as limited scientific research activities, training not being linked to the labour market and post-graduate employment has not yet met the requirements.

According to Minister Nha, the MOET will propose amendments and supplements to the Law on Education and the Law on Higher Education, while facilitating the planning for a network of higher education institutions and pedagogical schools.

The minister urged the higher education institutions to deploy key tasks set by the sector in the next school year, focusing on strengthening the forecast of human resource needs and developing training courses in line with the requirements of the labour market.

On the other hand, the units need to strengthen upgrades for their facilities, promote the application of IT in teaching, learning and educational management and improve the quality of teaching foreign languages in order to expand international integration.

(Source: NDO)