LookAtVietnam – Accounting is a hot training branch that attracts a large number of students, especially as the demand for accountants is very high.

Accounting is a hot training branch that attracts a large number of students, especially as the demand for accountants is very high.

Finance & banking study branches remain hot

Vietnamese studies, why not?

Maritime Bank has 3100 officers, including 170 in their finance and accounting department. The number of employees has been increasing rapidly.

According to Dr Dang Van Thanh, Head of the Accounting Faculty at the Business and Technology University, accountants are needed in every business, agency or social organization.

“If every business uses one accountant, Vietnam will need 50,000 accountants. The actual demand is much higher, because big enterprises need many accountants for each enterprise,” Thanh calculated.

“Besides, 13,500 communes and 600 districts need many thousands of accountants. Ten thousand other organizations, big and small, also need at least one accountant,” Thanh added.

A representative of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) admitted at a recent workshop that they have focused on training and developing technical officers for a long time, while making light of training officers in business and management fields, especially in accounting.

As a result, their finance-accounting officers do not have high qualifications, and few have been well-trained. Many member companies of the group have not been able to recruit qualified officers.

Businesses urge schools to speed up accountant training, but, they also need officers with high qualifications. Companies complain that many university graduates possess “weak professional knowledge,” and are “not up to date with international practices” and lack “soft skills.”

A Maritime Bank official noted that, in many cases, degrees do not truly reflect the real qualifications of accountants.

Accountant training schools admit that businesses have every reason to criticize training quality. A Finance Academy representative noted that there is a big gap between the knowledge students gain from schools and the demands of their jobs, because of inefficient training curricula.

Businesses want schools to consult with them to formulate curricula to train students who can meet their job requirements. Some schools even suggest that businesses should be involved in the training process.

Source: Tien phong