Training tourism human resources to meet international standards.

Students of Saigontourist Tourism and Hotel Vocational School.

To date, the country has approximately 195 tourism training institutions, including: 65 universities with tourism departments; 55 colleges; 71 vocational schools; and 4 vocational training centers. In addition, there are 2 training facilities affiliated with businesses. However, these training institutions still cannot supply enough labor to meet the demands of the tourism market.

According to statistics from the Vietnam National Tourism Administration, the tourism industry needs up to 40,000 workers each year, but in reality, the supply only ensures about 20,000 personnel.

Of these, only 9.7% have university or postgraduate degrees; over 50% have primary, secondary, or college degrees; 39.3% have qualifications below primary level; and only 43% of the total workforce has received professional training in tourism.

This shows that Vietnam's tourism workforce is not only lacking in quantity but also weak in quality.

Recently, "retraining" has been a frequently mentioned term among tourism businesses when discussing recruitment, because the workforce provided by training institutions has not met the requirements of businesses. This has led to employers having to spend time providing hands-on training to help employees adapt to job requirements.

A report by the Vietnam Institute for Tourism Development Research indicates that the quality and productivity of labor in Vietnam's tourism industry remain low. For example, labor productivity in Vietnamese hotels is only 1/15th that of Singapore, 1/10th that of Japan, and one-fifth that of Malaysia…

According to experts, this situation could easily lead to Vietnamese tourism workers facing intense competition right in their own backyard.

Speaking at the scientific conference "Training and Utilizing Internationally Standardized Tourism Human Resources in the Current Period" recently held in Hanoi, Professor Dr. Dao Manh Hung - Chairman of the Vietnam Federation of Tourism Training Associations - stated: In the context of the Mutual Recognition Agreement on Tourism Professionals (MRA-TP) allowing the movement of skilled tourism workers from ASEAN countries, foreign tourism workers could flood into Vietnam, putting Vietnamese tourism workers at risk of losing their jobs in their own country if they do not improve their professional skills and work attitude.

In fact, nowadays, a relatively large number of tourism workers from countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore have come to Vietnam to work. Almost all 4-5 star hotels employ foreign workers.

The strong recovery of tourism after the pandemic, with the active re-entry of travel businesses and the increasing number of high-end tourist accommodations, further demonstrates the Vietnamese tourism market's significant demand for human resources (as of the end of 2023, the country had 3,921 international travel businesses, an increase of 1,027 businesses compared to 2022; there were 38,000 tourist accommodation establishments with 780,000 rooms, including 247 five-star establishments and 368 four-star establishments).

To ensure the rapid and sustainable development of tourism, it is necessary to have solutions for training sufficient tourism human resources, especially high-quality human resources, to meet the needs of businesses and the market.

In tourism recruitment, the "input" of businesses largely depends on the "output" of training institutions. That is, to have a workforce that meets international standards, the prerequisite is a well-trained workforce that achieves internationally recognized skill levels and is capable of working in both domestic and international business environments.

However, to date, tourism training institutions in Vietnam are still teaching in a fragmented manner, with each institution acting independently. Associate Professor Pham Trung Luong, former Deputy Director of the Institute for Tourism Development Research, stated that the management system of tourism training institutions in our country is fragmented, overlapping, and shows differences in regulations regarding curriculum frameworks and output standards.

The Ministry of Education and Training directly manages the professional aspects of training institutions, while vocational training institutions are managed by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. Regulations regarding admissions, training, accreditation, teacher standards, student management, etc., are separate for each ministry.

There are differences in training methods between the two systems (one uses a credit-based system, the other a subject- or module-based system), leading to inconsistencies in the graduation competencies of students from the two systems.

Furthermore, limitations in training capacity due to a shortage of both the quantity and quality of lecturers (professional qualifications meeting regional and international standards, scientific research capabilities, foreign language skills, pedagogical skills, etc.) also mean that training results have not met the development requirements of the industry at both university and vocational levels.

The workforce recruited largely lacks both knowledge and skills (including hard skills in professional work, computer skills, foreign languages, etc., and soft skills in communication and interpersonal skills) and a professional work attitude.

To change this situation, Associate Professor Pham Trung Luong believes that a change in mindset is necessary in training. Human resource training activities must be operated based on social needs according to the supply-demand principle, effectively combining state and social resources, and managing and utilizing resources according to business management principles.

Many experts also mentioned the need to standardize training programs immediately. According to Professor Dr. Dao Manh Hung, state management agencies need to quickly unify and issue a common program for training institutions with criteria closely adhering to occupational skill standards, increasing the proportion of practical training, foreign languages and computer skills, and piloting training in some professions in English.

Training programs must be designed in accordance with regional and international standards, ensuring continuity between different levels of education as well as between domestic and regional/international training institutions.

Dr. Doan Manh Cuong (National Assembly Office) stated that the EU-funded program for developing environmentally and socially responsible tourism capacity (EU Project) has revised the Vietnam Tourism Occupational Skills Standards (VTOS) to align with Vietnamese regulations, while also standardizing and aligning them with international occupational standards and ASEAN standards.

Therefore, tourism training institutions need to implement the VTOS standards in their teaching to improve the effectiveness of tourism vocational training in Vietnam in a consistent manner. Dr. Doan Manh Cuong emphasized that it is necessary to agree that the training time at businesses should not be less than 50% of the total training program time.

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