Workshop Employers and Alumni – Start-ups for Youngsters: Opportunities and Challenges

Sat, 15/06/2019 - 17:12

The Employment and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Forum saw attendance from over 20 businesses, the University’s Director Board, 4 lecturers, or educators from in and out of the Faculty of International Relations (FIR) as well as 141 students and 17 alumni of the FIR.

The Forum is co-hosted by the Faculty of International Relations and the Center for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Studies as part of the V2WORK project and the Faculty's program whose purpose is to bring businesses, students, and the school’s management board together to discuss adjustment to the current training curriculum so as to be suitable to the market’s demand. In addition, students will be able to share their concerns with alumni and businesses on future employment.

The Forum consisted of four panels. The first, a moderator panel, consisted of Mr. Tran Van Lieng – CEO/Chairman of Vietnam Vinacacao Joint Stock Company; Dr. Bui Hai Dang – Dean of Faculty of International Relations; Dr. Tran Dinh Lam – Director of the Center for Vietnamese and Southeast Asian Studies, V2WORK project coordinator at HCMUSSH. The second panel was made of businessmen from 23 companies. Members of the third panel were alumni and the forth was composed of students of Faculty of International Relations.

Delivering the opening remark, Dr. Pham Tan Ha – Vice president of HCMUSSH, wished for the success of the forum and expressed his eagerness to listen to different opinions from business and students.

According to Mr. Tran Van Lieng, Ms. Siren Mai of Aster Group, other representatives, the English standard output should be IELTS 6.5 band since it is suitable for working conditions. In addition, Ms. Mai also encouraged students to apply at foreign countries for their apprentices as it helps students broaden their vision and experience an actual foreign working environment and enrich one’s knowledge.

Representatives addressed some of the students’ limits when working in an actual environment, specifically, their attitude and basic soft skills like writing. They noted that some students when working in a different environment want the environment to adapt to their style of working rather than adapt themselves to the strange environment.

On this matter, alumni gave their remarks on some of the faculty’s courses including teaching content and courses’ names. Besides, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Dung proposed to add some subjects such as Risk management, Branding construction, and development, Portrait, and skills of the new leader, International institutions.Dr. Duong Ngoc Dung emphasized the importance of learning is not about finding a job but to complete oneself. For him, a study is an outlet to find meaning in life and to actually live happily.