HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Nguyen Dang Khoa, who studiedhospitality management in Switzerland, told Vietnam News he saw Vietnam as acountry with great potential for his industry as it integrates with the worldeconomy.

As a person born and brought up in Ho Chi Minh City, he loves itdeeply.

So, after finishing his degree, returning to Vietnam instead ofstaying in Switzerland and starting a career there was a no-brainer for him.

Nguyen Quang Trung, who studied international business andmanagement at Dickinson College in the US’s Pennsylvania State, also chose toreturn home after finishing his degree.

His decision was based on the fact that in recent years Vietnamhas become one of the leading countries in Southeast Asia in economic and otherterms. Seeing this as a chance to make a career right in his hometown, he tookit and returned as well.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam started to receivea large number of people who studied abroad coming back to work, some out oflove for their country, and others for other reasons.

Vietnam has lots of jobs to offer returnees especially aftersigning a clutch of international trade deals such as the EU-Vietnam Free TradeAgreement and Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership(CPTPP). The country is also a member of organisations like the WorldTrade Organisation and ASEAN. 

Nguyen Hieu Duc Duy, a student at RMIT in Australia, saidreturning to Vietnam was not actually a part of his plan. 

He was studying abroad when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. As thesituation worsened by the day and borders started to close, he made the choiceto return to Vietnam to lessen his family’s burden since he was relying onmoney from home for his expenses in Australia.

He did want to return and continue studying in Australia and buildhis life there, but gradually began to give up the idea after looking back athis experiences in both countries.  

Though staying there and studying did broaden his mind in manyways, he did not feel as comfortable as in Vietnam due to the culturaldifferences he faced in Australia. He then chose to transfer his degree to RMITin HCM City.

Duy said he also took into consideration whether his major, IT,would help him have a career in this country. It did especially since hefound a niche sector, cybersecurity, that Vietnam has begun to focus on inrecent years to improve its internet protection system.

“Vietnam’s cybersecurity market right now is relatively new. Butbecause it is new, it also has a lot of opportunities for me to explore itsstrengths and weaknesses and gather experience.”

So, what is in it for students studying in Vietnam as the wave ofstudents coming back from abroad grows stronger by the day? Will they be ableto compete with these students for their dream jobs?

Students who study abroad do have an advantage in that theyget much more practical experience than do students in Vietnam. Syllabusesin Vietnamese universities are sometimes old and do not provide what the worldrequires. 

However, students studying in Vietnam also have some advantages:They have a better understanding of careers in Vietnam than people who returnfrom abroad and are quick to pick up the latest job trends and ease theirway into them.

Vietnamese universities have in recent years increasingly enabledtheir students to practically experience more of what they have beenstudying such as by linking up with foreign universities to createshort-term study programmes. 

They include an economics degree set up by the Ho Chi Minh CityUniversity of Economics and Western Sydney University (Australia) and Chineseliterature degree by the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences andHumanity and Guangxi University (China).  

They are also tying up with companies for internships for theirstudents to acquire practical experience and try out the knowledge they acquireat school.

But if Vietnamese universities want to improve the quality oftheir graduates, the way to go about is by reforming their syllabuses to suitwhat the world currently needs and focus on soft skills that would benefittheir students in their jobs later on./.