LookAtVietnam – Government leaders including Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan met with more than 800 student representatives on Sunday to discuss ways to improve job prospects for graduates.

Enterprises can agree to receive students as trainees while supporting universities with equipment or money for training.

“This means it takes us a lot of time to become adaptable with the real professional requirements of enterprises,” said Minh.

Chu Kim Mai, a student from HCM City’s University of Social Sciences and Humanities, said that even learning the theories only was a problem, as there was lack of books and references for students at university libraries.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said the shortage was being slowly addressed by changes in the financial sources for practice, tuition fees and study equipment.

In addition, the Ministry of Science and Technology recently established a fund for science and technology development which also includes money for research by students, said Deputy Science and Technology Minister Le Dinh Tien.

Tien said the State was seeking a favourable policy to encourage leading students to pursue a technology research career.

Students could not undertake most scientific research due to the limited finance ranging between VND1-3 million (US$58.8-176.47), said Nguyen Ngoc Quang, a student at Ha Noi Technology University.

The Social Policy Bank had lent students money to buy computers for their studies, said Nguyen Van Ly, deputy general director of the bank.

In the coming time, the Ministry of Education and Training would have a plan to discuss ways to improve conditions for students to implement scientific research, said Nhan.

However, students should actively exchange reference materials with each other, he added.

In addition, since 2007, more than 880,000 students, 53 per cent of the contingent nationwide, had borrowed a total of VND928 billion ($54.59 million) to pay for their living and study costs, said Nhan.

Duong Xuan Tra My, deputy head of the Central College of Education’s Student Association, said that after graduating, many good students could not find the types of jobs they wanted.

She and other students asked whether the Government had any policies to take advantage of students’ knowledge.

In reply, the deputy Prime Minister said students themselves should make sure the field of study they had chosen to pursue would have a high demand for graduates.

Begin searching early

“Then, they should actively look for suitable jobs as soon as they are freshmen or juniors, instead of waiting until they graduate,” said Nhan.

Relevant Government authorities were responsible for forecasting employment demands, said Nhan, so that students can get clear career orientation.

However, authorities of schools have yet to pay enough attention to ensuring that the knowledge and skills they teach their students are in line with demand from employers. They should co-operate with enterprises so that these enterprises can take part in designing training programmes, he added.

In this way, enterprises can agree to receive students as trainees while supporting universities with equipment or money for training.

In addition, the Government has planned to establish the National Steering Committee on Training Human Resources Based On Social Demand, which will review demand of human resources in each specific industry and advise universities on suitable training courses.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News