VietNamNet Bridge – Where to go after finishing high school is a difficult question for high school graduates.

Only 36.4 percent of the students believed that the careers or fields of study they had chosen would be suitable for them. 40.9 percent of students revealed that they wondered if their studies suited them and 12.1 percent wondered if they would be able to get jobs in their fields. 10.6 percent of students responded that they found the question difficult to answer.

According to the HCM City Centre of Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information, in 2010, the supply of workers with university and higher university degrees would be some 8.5 percent of the total labor force. Meanwhile, the figure for junior colleges and vocational colleges would be 5.35 percent, vocational schools (2-year training) 10.27 percent, and skilled workers 30.67 percent. The remaining 45 percent of the total labor force would be unskilled workers.

For 2010, careers expected to attract workers are 1/ garment-textile-footwear and fine arts; 2/ information technology-telecommunication, electrical-electronics 3/ management and office administration 4/ mechanical engineering-civil engineering, transport and maritime 5/ finance and banking, auditing and insurance; 6/ tourism-environments, hotels, architecture and design; 7/ packaging, publishing 8/ marketing, consultancy services 9/ healthcare, medicine, cosmetics; 10/ services and sales.

Analysts divide high schools graduates into three groups. The first includes very good students who can pass exams to any university. The second includes weak students who will choose junior colleges or vocational schools to study and don’t dare to dream of studying at a university. The third includes students caught in the “middle who need to make reasonable decisions on registering at universities.

Many in the third group choose university study not based on their desire, but on their capability. The students simply want to register at schools that do not require overly high marks to ensure that they can study further at the university level.

Dr Nguyen Van Nha, Head of the Training Division of the Hanoi National University, thinks that high schools do not advise their students well about where to go after finishing high school.

Nha notes that few students have opportunities to go to production workshops or companies to see the work with their own eyes. They also do not have opportunities to hear from companies about the need for workers.

He has learned that students in many places, even those near Hanoi, also lack information about school enrollment, such as what is considered a “hot” study branches or how many students will be enrolled. Over the last few years, universities have begun sending staff to high schools to offer career advice and also to advertise their institutions.

VietNamNet/VnMedia