Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga said that it is essential to increase ties between universities and businesses to improve the practical experiences and working skills students gain after graduation.

Ga spoke at a two-day global education dialogue that began on June 16 in HCM City which attracted the participation of representatives from many colleges and universities.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) student assessment test ranks Vietnam in the top 10 countries globally, however, companies still complain much about employability of graduates. Graduates need further training to be employable.

Deputy Miniser of Education and Training Bui Van Ga

According to statistics released recently by the Vietnamese General Office of Statistics, around 6.3% of Vietnamese people aged between 15 and 25 are unemployed and one among five jobless people in Vietnam has a bachelor or doctorate degree.

The deputy minister said that university-industry partnerships have progressed slowly, which was one of the reasons why student continued to lack professional skills.

Firms need to participate more actively in college and university courses through providing equipment or experts. In Vietnam, universities still have to pay companies to take students on work experience.

"Many industries believe that such training is solely the responsibility of universities. It is necessary to change the point of view about links to improve the quality of human resource training,” Ga highlighted.

Regarding the question that Vietnam has 450 colleges and universities but modest scientific achievements, Ga explained that to have internationally-recognised scientific inventions, Vietnam needs to invest more into scientific research.

The deputy minister also noted that, "The Ministry of Education and Training has instructed universities to focus more on research work, considering this as a compulsory task for all lecturers. This will hopefully mean the country will have more big scientific achievements".