We take this opportunity to thank all of the individuals who helped us prepare
this report. We want to express appreciation to the direct instructor, Mrs. Nguyen Thanh
Thuy whose insightful comments and suggestions were valuable to us during the ERP
writing course.
We would also like to thank all the students in Advanced Program and other
faculties in National Economic University, who enthusiastically participated in the
survey and supported us in collecting data.
Youth Group
Introduction
Background
A variety of researches about the topic students and jobs have been carried out.
They have tended to focus on the recruiters’ satisfaction with candidates as well as
students’ expectations for jobs. In addition, most researches’ subject is students in
general, that means from all industries or majors. It remains unclear about how the
students in Economic major actually do to prepare themselves for working in future.
Economic Major has specific characteristics because economy ceaselessly changes and
requires flexibility, creativeness and unlimited knowledge. Each year, more than 60000
bachelors are added to the labor force. The need for further and more intensive research
on this subject is increasing.
Literature review
Due to the importance of students as the future labor supply for society,
numerous researches have been conducted to study many aspects such as the
expectations for career of students and the demands of recruiters, the applications of
knowledge educated in schools into practice, etc.
More specifically, Nhan Viet consulting company has conducted annual survey
about students and career, in which the students evaluate themselves. The results show
Many other studies and articles on websites and Magazines share the opinion
that many graduates lack necessary skills, socio-economic knowledge. Statistics from
indicated that majority of students who have graduated do not have sufficient
competence of working and recruiters have to retrain their new employees.
In general, with different methods and results, these researches show common
problems and raise an issue that students need to prepare or “equip” themselves the
necessary things for future.
Besides the contributions, these researches have some drawbacks. One of them is
that they tend to approach students in general terms. That means students in all majors
are not classified and studied as a whole, whereas, each major has its specific
characteristics. Especially Economic major, it highly appreciate flexibility to response
the ceaseless movements in the market. Moreover, Vietnam economy is in stage of
development and international integration. In that situations, the quality of economic
bachelors are more and more cared.
Methodology
The questionnaire content is composed of three parts. The first part is questions
for classification in terms of faculty, number of intake. Then the second part questions
the students’ perceptions toward qualifications, knowledge and skills. The remaining
questions ask for the activities that students are involved in, their level of concerns and
efforts. The soft version was edited on Google Spreadsheet and the link was sent to
students via Email. Our questionnaire can be found in APPENDIX 1.
We use Microsoft Excel and SPSS to process data. The results are presented in
percentage and illustrated by charts. The results are classifications by major, number of
Intake and levels of concern and involvement in activities.
Findings
NEU students’ standpoints towards the tangible credits
Graph 1.1
Graph 1.2
However, students in different years of study, such as first year, second year, and
final year… or in different faculties, like economics, accounting, and banking…have
different orders of priority in choosing what to study. For a more extensive research, it is
crucial to approach the problem from different standpoints.
When researching the real situation of NEU students in studying extra subjects,
the statistical data shows an increase in concern of students about having extra
certificates from first year students to final year students. Thirty percent of the first year
students do not study any subject except what are in their university curriculum. This
number dramatically reduces to 20%; 14% and 1% when the students are in their
Graph 1.4
To summary, first year students pay less attention to study extra subjects and
final year ones seem most concern about getting extra certificate. The levels of concern
increase as the years of study increase.
In term of major, we divide the faculties into three main ones, which are
Auditing-Accounting, Banking-Finance and the faculties of economics, such as
investment, international business, and insurance. The chart shows that students in
faculties of economics spend the least time on studying foreign languages compare to
the two other faculties. On the other hand, they study computing much more than others
do. It is likely that students in Banking-finance faculty consider learning foreign
languages as crucial due to the fact that 80% of them are striving to get good English
certificates like TOEFL or IELTS.
Both chart 1.4 and 1.5 indicate that holding foreign languages certificates is
crucial for NEU students. Students in all years of study and in all faculties spend most of
their time and effort for studying foreign languages. Notably, on average, the time and
effort they spend for computing, which is the second most important certificate, are 7
times less than for foreign languages. In addition, NEU students seem not pay attention
to getting economics certificate.
Graph 2.1
Soft skills are the practical skills that you need when you are in the society. They
include some crucial skills such as the actual experience and knowledge about the
profession, the communicating skill, the presentation skill, teamwork skill, etc. To NEU
students, they rank the working skills the first (Graph 2.2).
Those skills also the first skills required when a company recruits employees.
They are listed as ones of the first skills that Vietnam students should learn, according to
Graph 2.2
The survey has shown that NEU students have realized the importance of
soft skills. However, perception without awareness cannot make any progress in
improve the quality of NEU students. NEU students have to put effort to improve those
intangible credits, and the question is how? NEU students should participate in many
activities that can help them enrich those skills. The survey has given the response
shown in the graph 2.3. The students learn mostly through the media, take some social
activities, go to class, and work in the university’s researches. This result indicates that
they are very active with the activities within the university. However, it also expresses
the lack of independence and individuality. They do not spend much effort for working
part-time or enrolling in some soft-skill courses. The two activities need the students’
commitment in study them and take part in.
Especially, NEU students, in general, are not good with the actual experience of
the profession. One of the reasons is that they are scared of independent. As an
evidence, 50% of graduated students would like to study further immediately because of
that reason (statistics from the education research institution). Therefore, only 36% of
students answer that they do or used to work part-time (graph 2.3). Part-time jobs are
really potential and useful if NEU students can exploit to gain the real experience, and
precious skills through that. They are effective to show your skills in your CV.
Furthermore, it is persuasive and appealing to recruiters that it does not cost money for
training you again
Graph 2.4
The result illustrated, once again, signifies the consciousness of NEU students of
soft skills’ essentiality. Their two first preferences are building up soft skills and
improve the actual knowledge and experience. NEU students really pay attention to
those skills, even it has not been enough and completed yet.
In the graph 2.5, NEU students mostly evaluate themselves between the criteria
good and normal. It means that they are quite confident about their skills, especially the
soft skills.
As discussed in the previous part, the majority of NEU students perceive the
significance of having qualifications, both having good university graduation certificate
and other extra certificates. Levels of concern, depends on different major and number
of Intake. Among them, English certificates get most concerns whereas, the least is
computer skills certificate. According to some recruiters, Graduation Certificate is one
important criterion. This point suggests that students should not disregard it. They
should try their best to get good grades and pay attention to studying in university.
On aspect of intangibles, all the students consider knowledge and skills essential.
Levels of concern also depend on different major and number of Intake. In terms of
activities, a minority of students still does nothing or be inactive although they know the
preparations are necessary. These following suggestions are given to improve this point.
In recruiters’ point of view, there are some suggestions to help students in future
jobs. Companies should corporate university in education by many ways. For example,
giving students chances for internship, studying the practice so that they will be familiar
with the working environment and satisfy job requirements.
Above all, the final recommendation to student is that the only way for success is
being proactive to reinforce individuals’ competence.
Our Dears,
We are a group of students from Advanced Finance Class, Intake 48. We are doing a research
about the Preparation of National Economic University students for future job. Its purpose is to
clarify the reality and afterwards giving recommendations for our university students to be
successful in career. Your supports would contribute a lot to our study.
Would you please spend some time for answering this questionnaire!
□ Yes
□ No
4. Do you think Qualifications are essential?
□ No. because qualifications are only nominal, they have meanings in papers only
and they do not guarantee a job in future
□ Yes
□ No
6. Did/Do/Will you intend to get any certificates of the following? ( you can choose many
choices)
□ Yes
□ No
8. Please put these into order of importance: (From 1: Most to 3: Least)
Practical Knowledge
Interviewer: The first question for you, Sir, what do you think about bachelor degree and
how it can reflect the students’ knowledge and ability?
Interviewer: How about other certificates, such as foreign languages, computing and
accounting? Are they necessary for students to get a good job?
Mr Cuong: Personally, I think that besides holding bachelor degree, if students also have
certificates in foreign languages, computing or other economics fields it would be great.
However, not all of them are strictly necessary. Among these certificates, I highly value
foreign languages certificates, especially the international ones like Toeic, Toefl or Ielts
since it can bring you considerable opportunities to get promotion, higher education.
Computing is basic knowledge and skill that students must to have but we don’t require our
Interviewer: Thanks for your time. Today I want to ask you some questions about the
recruitment. Could we start?
Ms Tho: Oh, go ahead. You are welcome.
Interviewer: Firstly, what types of employees that you usually recruit? I mean do they need high
academic degrees or not?
Ms Tho: Uhm, each year we usually recruit depending on the expansion of the corporation. Our
businesses are about real estates, and services such as hotels, bars, and restaurants. Because of
the profile of the business, we need all kinds of labor, from little education to high education.
Interviewer: So what about the labor with high education? Do you recruit newly graduates? And
what profession do you require?
Ms Tho: To tell the truth, they are not that favorable to us. Usually, we accept someone with
experience. And we mostly need the economic graduated ones.
Interviewer: Only because of the experience that you don’t prefer newly graduates?
Ms Tho: It is one of many reasons. You know that we or other enterprises as well, don’t like to
take in newly graduates. They do not only lack experience about work, but also lack the socio-
knowledge and the soft skills. The soft skills are much more important, because we have to deal
with people-the customer very much. The employees need to know how to present their ideas,
then the time management, working in team, etc and especially the communication skill.
Interviewer: What do you think of the quality of the newly graduates with economic majors?
Ms Tho: There are a small number of candidates that satisfies our requirement. Mostly, they are
just excellent at the academic degree, but they don’t participate in social activities or have done
anything during their studying. Just a few of them know how to improve their strengths in those
things. In the standpoint as a recruiter, I prefer people who know how to sharpen their strengths
and have good soft skills.
Interviewer: Thanks again for your time. You’re really helpful.
Ms Tho: It’s my pleasure.