In early December 2022, Song Tran, the founder of a technology firm, successfully applied for a business administration training program at a university in Singapore, with an 83 percent funded scholarship.

As the training program runs online, Song will be able to run his business in Vietnam and improve his professional knowledge at the same time. This allows him to save time and money compared with traditional training courses.

When seeking training programs, Song found that higher education in many countries had changed a lot thanks to digital transformation. More and more universities, especially in Australia, the US, Europe and Singapore, have organized online training courses. 

In Vietnam, since Covid-19 broke out, online study has become more familiar to people. Many universities, academies and education establishments are taking steps to move their operations into digital space.

At FUNiX, an online training program belonging to FPT, more than 5,000 people follow short- and long-term courses a day. These include students who choose higher education programs with 50 percent online study there. They can complete the remaining part of study at one of three schools which recognize credits from FUNiX, namely FPT University, Deakin University in Australia and University of Seattle, to obtain degrees from these schools.

Technology can support universities in training. Schools can enroll students, organize training, examinations and assessments of students’ results. 

Vietnam is striving to become a digital country by 2030 and on that path, digital human resources play a key role determining the success of digital transformation.

However, many cadres, civil servants, public employees, workers and others still lack digital skills. 

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung told the NA that a digital university is the answer to the question about digital human resources.

According to Hung, 1.2 million people now work in the IT field, but only 550,000 workers finish junior college  (3-year training) and university (4-5 year training).

If Vietnam wants to have 2-3 percent of the population working in this field, it will need 2-3 million workers. 

Meanwhile, schools produce 60,000-70,000 bachelor’s degree holders each year. 

To improve digital skills for more than 2 million civil servants and the rest of the population, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has put into operation the online learning platform OneTouch at onetouch.mic.gov.vn. 

After seven months of operation, 13.4 million people have accessed the platform to learn basic digital skills.

Van Anh