Improving the quality of tourism human resources - Part 1: Challenges facing the requirements of the new situation

Human resource development, especially high-quality human resources, is a challenge for Vietnam tourism in the face of the new situation. This is also a criterion for building a sustainable Vietnamese tourism product brand. Only a human resource development strategy that is properly and appropriately concerned can maintain the brand and service quality in the context of international integration.

The quality of tourism human resources is still low.

In 2024, Vietnam's tourism industry strives to welcome and serve 17-18 million international visitors; serve 110 million domestic tourists; total revenue from tourists reaches about 840 trillion VND, according to Prof. Dr. Dao Manh Hung, Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Training Association, to achieve this goal, tourism businesses need to prepare enough human resources, at the same time, training facilities also need to have solutions to meet the increasingly high quality requirements of tourism human resources of businesses.

Prof. Dr. Dao Manh Hung said that, up to now, the country has 195 tourism training facilities including: 65 universities with tourism faculties; 55 colleges (10 colleges specializing in tourism training, of which 8 are under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism); 71 secondary schools; and 4 vocational training centers; 2 training facilities under enterprises.

Student of Saigontourist College of Tourism and Hospitality.

The number of training programs includes: 55 majors, 123 majors, tourism and tourism-related occupations. Currently, the country has about 2,000 teachers, lecturers of tourism and management staff, serving training at all levels. Every year, tourism training establishments graduate about 20,000 students out of about 22,000 students recruited.

According to experts, the quality and productivity of labor in the tourism and hotel industry in Vietnam is still low, according to the report of the Institute for Tourism Development Research.

In particular, labor productivity at hotels in Vietnam is only 1/15 compared to Singapore, 1/10 compared to Japan and 1/5 compared to Malaysia. Tourism workers are at risk of competing for jobs in Vietnam by workers from ASEAN countries such as Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia, etc. Currently, there are quite a lot of workers from the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore coming to Vietnam to work, almost all 4-5 star hotels have foreign workers.

"One of the fundamental reasons leading to this situation is that our current tourism human resources are both lacking in quantity and weak in expertise and professionalism, thus leading to low quality of tourism services in our country," said Prof. Dr. Dao Manh Hung.

Prof. Dr. Dao Manh Hung

According to the Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Training Association, to create a highly competitive tourism product, the quality of tourism human resources plays a very important role. Only a human resource development strategy that is properly and reasonably concerned can maintain the brand and service quality in the context of international integration.

Prof. Dr. Dao Manh Hung also said that currently in our country, the training of tourism human resources needs to pay attention to a number of issues such as: The training program is not unified, the training code has not been updated, and does not really meet the needs of society; The quality of the teaching staff is still low, not meeting the requirements of teaching standards, most of the teachers and lecturers in schools with tourism training are trained from other industries.

Besides, the facilities for teaching and learning Tourism are still lacking, there are many training facilities in poor condition in terms of facilities and technical equipment but still maintain teaching; Most training facilities have not yet set output standards...

"Both too much and too little"

Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Trung Luong, former Deputy Director of the Institute of Tourism Research, said that tourism human resource development training activities in Vietnam have currently revealed a number of shortcomings.

There is currently no university training facility specializing in tourism, but only faculties specializing in tourism at university training facilities of other majors. Therefore, university training programs specializing in tourism are very different because university training facilities decide to take into account the specific characteristics of their majors. This affects the quality of university output specializing in tourism.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Pham Trung Luong

In addition, there is a lack of an "Academy" model that combines training activities with research in the tourism field, thus affecting the quality of training programs due to the failure to update research results as well as the quality of the teaching staff at tourism training institutions.

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Trung Luong, the management system of training institutions is currently fragmented, overlapping and has differences in terms of framework program regulations and output standards. The training system is also not the same in schools, so there is also a phenomenon of mutual non-recognition, leading to students who graduate from intermediate or college level at one school and want to transfer to university level at another school or graduate from university and want to study for a master's degree at another school, they have to take additional courses.

"The transfer from vocational schools to the college and university system is also not possible, leading to vocational school graduates, after a period of working well, having management and operational capacity, and businesses wanting to promote them to higher positions, encounter difficulties because they do not have a university degree," said Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Trung Luong.

In addition, the rapid development of some industries such as tourism is always accompanied by a high demand for human resources in the tourism industry, especially when tourism is identified as a key economic sector in the spirit of Resolution 08 of the Politburo. This leads to the massive development of tourism training facilities in localities and schools while there is a shortage or even no specialized teachers, no system of internship facilities...

Students of Saigon Tourism Vocational College in a practical class.

Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Trung Luong said that there has not been a breakthrough change in the selection of training models, according to which the current main training model still follows the "traces" from the subsidized economy period, lacking vision in the context of integration and the rapid development of science and technology, especially the 4.0 industrial revolution.

"Regarding the research function, training institutions are still pursuing scientific research activities mainly aimed at publishing in scientific journals, and chasing after rankings. There is very little research associated with technology transfer and start-up activities outside the school. As a result, schools today continue to exist in the old way, with little innovation in thinking like a few decades ago," Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Trung Luong commented.

Along with that, training activities are still heavily administrative in the "subsidized" period, not respecting the "Supply - Demand" principle in training to meet social needs, the assignment of enrollment quotas to training institutions is still "asking - giving", lacking practical basis in forecasting social needs for training levels. As a result, the situation of recruiting excess and shortage of majors is still common in many training institutions; training institutions are not autonomous in enrollment activities...

Therefore, the human resources of many industries, typically the tourism industry, are currently "both lacking and weak" or "both abundant and lacking". In essence, many industries are currently lacking human resources to meet job requirements, having excess human resources that do not meet job requirements, and especially lacking high-quality human resources.

"In that context, there needs to be a change in thinking about the training model, especially in the university system, to improve the quality of training with the aim of students graduating with both management and operational knowledge and professional and systematic professional knowledge, meeting the development requirements in the context of integration," Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Trung Luong expressed.

Must invest more brainpower

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Duc Thang, Head of the Faculty of Tourism, East Asia University of Technology, said that the tourism industry is experiencing some exciting new trends in 2023 - 2024. From eco-tourism to wellness tourism to multi-generational tourism, there will be something to suit every type of traveler.

By staying ahead of these trends, travel businesses can position themselves to attract and cater to these new and emerging travel segments. In the face of this wave, travel companies must also invest more in building a tourism workforce that meets market demand.

We must invest more brainpower in building a tourism workforce.

Not only in the world but also in Vietnam, simple vacations are no longer chosen much. Tourists are more interested in the quality of experiences at the destination. Tourists will stay longer if the destination has many interesting experiences. If in the past, beach tourism was popular, in recent years it has shifted to mountain resorts and experiencing local culture.

New generation tourists are those who love the environment, respect and are responsible for the environment, so the trend of finding unique cultural values and pristine ecology is also becoming popular. High-tech tourism such as smart tourism, virtual reality tourism, electronic tourism,... through modern entertainment areas, parks, and entertainment complexes is also increasingly attracting a large number of tourists. Not out of that flow, the appearance of Vietnamese tourism is also having positive changes following global trends.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Duc Thang said that to have a source of international standard tourism human resources, training institutions need to train and foster students at all levels to meet international standards.

"In general, if it is an international standard, it means that the tourism human resources must be able to meet and adapt to the trends and fluctuations of world tourism, and at the same time be able to work in international standard tourism and hotel business environments at home and abroad," Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Duc Thang stated his opinion.

>>> To be continued

Dang Nguyen
Source: Improving the quality of tourism human resources - Part 1: Challenges facing the requirements of the new situation (bvhttdl.gov.vn)

Source