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Acknowledgement

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

Pham Vu Diem Hang

Dao Mai Hoa

Bui Thi Bich Ngoc

Nguyen The Duc

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Abstract
Various issues related to university students have been studied based on
characteristics of their living conditions and career orientations including how they live,
study, entertain or how what they expect from their career, etc. This study investigated
the extent to which students from all the faculties in National Economic University will
be studied based on the preparation for future jobs that they exhibited in their
perceptions and the activities they take. The results indicated that, on the aspect of
perception, most the students know the essence or significance of prepare for their jobs
in future, however, on the aspect of action, there are some problems in directions and
effectiveness. From the findings, some recommendations for students to better prepare
for their career are given.

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgement...................................................................................................... 1
Abstract...................................................................................................................... 2
Table of Contents....................................................................................................... 3
Introduction................................................................................................................ 3
Background............................................................................................................. 3
Purpose, research question and key term...............................................................4
Scope, method and contents......................................................................................5
Literature review.....................................................................................................5
Methodology............................................................................................................ 6
Findings...................................................................................................................... 8
NEU students’ standpoints towards the tangible credits.........................................8
NEU students’ perception of bachelor degree......................................................8
1.2 NEU students’ awareness of holding extra certificates.............10
2.1. NEU students’ perception of developing soft skills.....................................14
Discussion and Conclusion.......................................................................................21

Introduction
Background

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Due to the development and international Integration of Vietnam economy, the
demand for labor, especially high quality, sharply increases. Millions of students who
are in universities and colleges are Society’s human resources in the future. However,
there is a fact that most graduated students, even the ones with excellent results in
universities face a lot of difficulty in finding appropriate jobs. On the other side,
recruiters complain that most candidates do not satisfy their requirements. The reason
given is that the candidates do not have sufficient working skills and adequate job
descriptions acknowledgement. The Government, therefore, has been investing and
caring tertiary education system to achieve the goal that the competence of graduates
meets the practical needs of society. In addition, many students begin to realize the
significance of preparing for their jobs. They are more proactive to improve their
knowledge and skills to satisfy the recruiters’ increasing demand of labor and to succeed
in career.

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.

Purpose, research question and key term


The report aims at describing and analyzing the perception and actions of
students toward the issue of preparing for future jobs. Therefo re, this will help answering
two research questions, which are: “How do NEU students perceive and commit to obtain the
tangible credits for their future career?” and “How do NEU students perceive and commit
to obtain intangible credits for their future career?”

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The preparations are defined in terms of the two fields. The first is tangible
qualifications include bachelor degree and other extra certificates. The second is
knowledge and supportive skills that are tangibles. Knowledge term here includes both
theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. The term practical knowledge is
understandings about the actual situations of the major or industries, about the society
and economy. Supportive skills include soft skills, such as presentation, persuading;
working skills includes leadership, time management and searching information; and
computing skills like using office software.

Scope, method and contents


Because of limited time and ability, we conducted the survey on a sample of 310
students from all the faculties in National Economic University and interviewed some
recruiters. After collecting and processing data, we obtained some findings that will be
presented in the main parts of the paper and then give some recommendations.

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.

Many researches addressed the problems of students’ preparation and planning


before graduating universities. A report released by Ministry of Education and Training
described the wide gap between the abilities of students and the requirements of
employers, as a result it leaded to nearly 40% of students were unable to find suitable
jobs right after graduating universities. An independent research by L&A Company was
also concerned about 20% of students working in jobs that they were previously not
trained.

More specifically, Nhan Viet consulting company has conducted annual survey
about students and career, in which the students evaluate themselves. The results show

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that more than 45% are not good at English, 20% students are not good at using
Microsoft Word. The percentage of students who are not good at Excel and PowerPoint
are respectively 39.8% and 31.6%. The soft skills include 10 skills: Team working,
problem solving, Communication, presenting, time management, analysis, Creativity,
Leadership, making decision, Negotiating and others. Majority of students think that
they are quite good and good at these skills. Besides, 94% and 89.4% think that foreign
languages and soft skills are necessary to have good jobs. Students evaluate they are the
most necessary, compared with computing skills, grades, health, relationships,
appearance. Another finding is the most expected companies are multinationals and
foreign firms. The State-owned enterprises and offices are least expected.

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

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5.1 Collecting data:
The research use two sources of data that are primary data and secondary data

5.1.1 Primary data:


We collected primary data by conducting a survey. The population of the survey
is the entire students from all faculties in National Economic University. Because of
limited ability of an only four-member group as well as short time, we cannot collect
data of all students. Therefore, we take a random sample of 310 students. The simple
random sampling method ensures that all individuals in the population have the equal
possibility of being studied. The way of conducting the simple random sample is as
following. All the email lists, Yahoo lists of students and Classroom Addressees of all
classes are collected from Politic Issues & Students Management Department and from
Faculty Offices. Questionnaires were delivered to each chosen student directly in hard
copies or through internet in soft copies.

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.

In addition to the questionnaire, some direct interviews with recruiters were


carried out. The interview questions target requirements that they search and expect in
candidates.

1.1.2 Secondary data:


The previous researches related to this topic are reviewed. Our information
resources are researches in NEU library, Statistics from Politic Issues and Students
Management Department. Besides, Internet is the most helpful and effective source. We
use some information from the Ministry of Education and Training and some
Academies.

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Many articles about students and career are used as references for this report.

5.2 Processing Data:

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

NEU students’ perception of bachelor degree


The survey results indicate a considerable importance of bachelor degree to the
majority of respondents. It seems that holding a good or an excellent undergraduate
degree offers students a plenty of opportunities. Firstly, it helps to construct favorable
curriculum vitae, which is the first step in having a good job. Furthermore, in order to
win scholarship to prestigious international universities, or meet requirements to study at
a higher level, students need to get an impressive learning result.

Graph 1.1

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However, there are differences in their perceptions of bachelor degree’s role. For
62% of NEU students, bachelor degrees can adequately reflect students’ knowledge and
ability, therefore become a comprehensive evaluation of effort as well as talent of
students. On the other hand, the remainders disapprove of the evaluation system in
university so that they raise some doubts on the adequate reflection of degree on
students’ knowledge and ability. These students, in fact, try their best to get high marks
since it is essential for their future jobs but personally, they do not believe in what is
written in the paper called “bachelor degree”.

Graph 1.2

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In general, a vast number of NEU students highly appreciate bachelor degree and
strive to obtain a good result in learning. It is due to the fact that holding a good
bachelor degree is a prerequisite for having a good job in the future, although to some
extent it does not entirely reflect knowledge of students.

1.2 NEU students’ awareness of holding extra


certificates
The pie chart below is summary of the survey conducted with the purpose of
researching the awareness of NEU students of holding extra certificates. Nearly 80% of
responders realize the special importance of extra certificates, such as foreign languages,
computing, accounting, stock market… The remainders of more than 60 students, which
account for 20% of the whole, do not regard these certificates as strictly necessary
though they bring additional advantages. Notably, there is no one considering extra
certificates as entirely unnecessary. Therefore, we may come to conclusion that NEU
students are well aware of gaining more knowledge to supplement what they has learnt
in university.

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Graph 1.3

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.

1.2.1 Standpoints of NEU students in term of years of study

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

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second, third and final year, respectively. In contrast, the number of students studying
foreign languages as their extra learning rises consistently from first year to forth year
students. All students perceive holding a foreign languages certificate, particularly
English certificates, such as TOEFL, IELTS or TOEIC as imperative. Because of that,
studying foreign language accounts for the highest percentage in choices of both senior
and junior in NEU. The number of first year students choosing to study computing is 3%
less than second year students. Both third year and forth year students have the same
percentage of studying computing which is 10%. Since other certificates such as
accounting, banking or auditing are strictly academic, only final year students choose to
study them though at a small percentage of 13%.

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.

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1.2.2 Standpoints of NEU students in term of faculties

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.

Students in Banking-finance seem not pay much attention in having other


certificates while for who in Auditing-Accounting it is essential. It is due to the
requirement that accountants need to have accounting certificate. For other students
whose majors may not bring them favorable jobs in the future, for example:
environmental economics and economics, they tend to invest time and effort in getting
an extra academic certificate like accounting or auditing. That is the reason why there
are 8% of these students study in those fields. In contrast, working in banking and
finance sectors seems to be attractive so that students in this faculty do not keen on
holding extra academic certificate.

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Graph 1.5

1.3 The importance of each certificate

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.

2. NEU students’ stance towards the intangible credits-soft


skills

2.1. NEU students’ perception of developing soft skills

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In reality, only bachelor degrees are not enough for outstanding curriculum vitae.
To make the application desirable to the recruiters, one candidate should express well
their skills, especially soft skills, in the CV. It seems that through the media and
experienced people, NEU students pay more attention for those intangible credits. Most
students that took the survey agree that soft skills are very important, and only a few
ones consider them as normal.

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

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Mr. Nguyen Dong Trieu, Consultant and supporting center for enterprises BR&T-the
HCM University of Technology1. If the applicant obtains an excellent degree from the
university, but cannot work in a team, or express well his ideas, then the company will
fail him. “Lacking the soft skills, even the students have the good ideas, but they do not
know how to present and express them. As a result, they will lack the self-confidence
and it leads to ineffectiveness and inefficiency,” said Mr. Nguyen Huy Hoang-Vice
deputy director Tam Viet Company (Ha Noi) 2. The communicating, net working,
persuading skills and the actual experience about the profession are also essential. They
are the second and the third in accordance with NEU students’ opinion.

Graph 2.2

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2.2. NEU students’ commitment to develop soft skills

According to a recent research of Vietnam education research institution, 83% of


graduated students are lacking soft skills, and 37% of graduated students could not find
jobs mainly because of lacking soft skills. Furthermore, most graduated students need
training by the company, who recruits them, from 6 months to 1 year. It is costly for the
company. Those statistical results, of course, include NEU students.

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.

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Graph 2.3

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

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When still attending in the university, how is the order of NEU students’
priorities to prepare for their future career? The answer to this question partly betokens
NEU students’ awareness towards soft skill for their incoming profession. In the graph
2.4, the priorities are illustrated as the result obtained from the survey.

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.

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Graph 2.5: NEU students evaluate their skills themselves

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.

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Discussion and Conclusion
In conclusion, compared with students in other major, students in economic
major are more proactive in acquiring knowledge and improve skills, in terms of both
perception and action. This part will summarize the findings and giving
recommendations on each finding.

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 the position of university administer, foreign language and computer skills


teaching should be more invested and improved in order that Students can use in
practice of working. University should direct students to develop the three most basic
supportive skills (languages, computing, soft skills). Besides, they should encourage and
support the outdoor activities like volunteer team, clubs, etc. This helps create
environment for students to actively explore and develop abilities.

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.

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In the position of Students, the findings implied that they should not spend too
much time on extra credits. Here extra credits mean the ones with little value. Instead of
taking short-time course for them, students use the time to concentrate on their major
and school works.

Above all, the final recommendation to student is that the only way for success is
being proactive to reinforce individuals’ competence.

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Appendix I: QUESTIONAIRE

Preparation of students in National Economic University for future job

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!

Thank you very much.

1. What year of study you are in?

□ First year students


□ Second year students
□ Third year students
□ Final year students
2. Which faculties you are in?

□ Faculties of economics ( investment, insurance…)


□ Banking- Finance
□ Auditing- Accounting

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3. Do you care about high grades, A-level graduation certificate? And do you strive for
them?

□ Yes
□ No
4. Do you think Qualifications are essential?

□ Essential because Qualifications reflect knowledge, competence and bring many


opportunities. (E.g. scholarship, good job)

□ Essential although qualifications do not reflect knowledge, competence, they are


the only thing that helps students get jobs.

□ No. because qualifications are only nominal, they have meanings in papers only
and they do not guarantee a job in future

□ Other opinion: ……………………………………………………………..


………………………………………………………………………………

5. Beside Bachelor’s Degree, Do you think other Certificates are essential?

□ Yes
□ No
6. Did/Do/Will you intend to get any certificates of the following? ( you can choose many
choices)

□ Foreign Languages (TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS, Cambridge, etc)


□ Computing certificates (Office, etc)
□ Others (Accounting, Securities, etc)

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7. Please put these certificates into order of essence
1: Most essential 3: Least essential

□ Foreign Languages (TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS, Cambridge, etc)


□ Computing certificates (Office, etc)
□ Others (Accounting, Securities, etc)
Do you think obtaining soft skills and practical knowledge are important to economic
students?

□ Yes
□ No
8. Please put these into order of importance: (From 1: Most to 3: Least)

□ Knowledge about the practice of the major/industry/field that Students are


studying

□ Communication skills, networking (present skills, persuading skills, etc.)


□ Working competence (time management, teamwork, etc)
9. What do you actually do to obtain these practical knowledge and Soft skills? ( you can
tick more than one choice)

□ Take courses in soft skills


□ Do Part-time jobs
□ Take part in social activities

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□ Acquire socio-economic information from Mass media (newspapers, radio, TV,
Internet)

□ Doing group works, doing academic Research


□ No. I do nothing.
□ Your personal way: ………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………….
10. Which activity do you spend the most of your Time/Effort? Put into order from 1: most
to 7: least

□ Coming to class for lectures, doing exercises and academic researches


□ Acquire soft skills
□ Acquire practical knowledge
□ Learning Foreign Languages
□ Learn computing skills
□ Get other certificates
□ Entertainment

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11. How do you evaluate your knowledge and skills? Tick the cells you choose.

Very Good Fair Bad Very


good bad
Academic or theoretical knowledge( from books,
lectures)

Supportive knowledge( computer, foreign language)

Practical Knowledge

Communication skills, networking( persuading,


presentations, etc)
Competence in Working( Time management, team
works, etc)

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Appendix II: Interview scripts
I. Interview with Mr Nguyen Tien Cuong- Vice president of Micro banking
for small and medium sized enterprises-MSME centre, Techcombank
Interviewer: Thank you very much for spending time on our interview

Mr Cuong: You are welcome

Interviewer: The first question for you, Sir, what do you think about bachelor degree and
how it can reflect the students’ knowledge and ability?

Mr Cuong: Well, I highly appreciate bachelor degree. When looking at a CV of a


candidate, the first thing recruiters concern about is the grade in a bachelor degree, such
as good or fair, and then the others like experience and other certificates. Most of our
employers graduated from prestigious economics university, such as the Foreign trade
university, the National economic university or the Banking academy, so we consider
bachelor degrees from these universities as reliable.

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

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employers to show their computing certificates, actually. In fact, students seem not pay
attention to this. I don’t mean in term of certificates but in term of real skills. Well, lastly,
about other certificates such as accounting or stock market, I think they are unnecessary.
They are only helpful for students whose major are not accounting or finance. In this case,
they play a role of “spare plan” if these students cannot find a job suitable to their majors.
In general, I think they are unnecessary.

Interviewer: Thank you very much.

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II. Interview with Ms. Hoang Thi Tho – HRM manager of Anh Quan
Corporation, Ha Dong, Ha Noi

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.

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