VietNamNet Bridge – Instead of rushing to enroll in economics schools, students nowadays tend to choose technologies for their university studies.

Technology studies on high demand

Economics studies were the top choice of the majority of the best high school graduates some years ago. At that time, the securities company and commercial bank mushrooming required the workers well trained in economics. Students rushed to study economics because they believed they would not stay unemployed after the graduation.

However, things are getting quite different. The economics downturn has forced businesses to lay off workers. A lot of economics students have become redundant.

Students nowadays tend to follow technology training majors, though they are considered more challenging to students. While economics are compared as the “new-fashioned” studies, technologies are described as “forever fashionable,” because high technologies are needed through the ages, while they are not hurt by any economic recessions.

Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phuong from the HCM City University of Technology noted the considerable improvement in the enrollment of students for technology training majors in 2013.

While the school could only find 18 students for electronics and automation in 2012, the figure rose to 50 in 2013.

The quality of the input students has also been improved. In the years before 2013, the students passing the entrance exams to the technology faculties only got the exam marks just a little higher than the minimum required mark. Meanwhile, a lot of students got 18-19 marks from the entrance exams in 2013.

Phuong noted that his school completed the 2013 enrolment plan very soon because it soon found enough students. Meanwhile, in the years before, it was very difficult to enroll students because they refused technology studies.

Ho Vien Phuong, MA, Deputy Head of the Training Division of the Lac Hong University, also confirmed that the enrolment in 2013 was by far better than in 2012. Especially, the school could find the students with high learning capability, who got 20 marks or higher from the national university entrance exams.

The Saigon Technology University also had a satisfactory enrolment season in 2013, when the number of students registering technology training majors was 3 percent higher than the number of students it planned to enroll.

Hoang Van Phuc, Director of the Enrolment and Job Center of the Dong Nai Technology University, also said it was difficult to enroll students for economics studies, while there were plenty of students wanting to study technologies.

Big job opportunities

The recent reports released by universities showed that 90 percent of technology students can find jobs suitable to their training majors after the graduation.

Dr. Phuong believes that technology students have been staying unhurt by the economic recession. The majority of students can get good jobs right in the first year after the graduation, while many of them can get jobs during the internship.

The Saigon Technology University reported that 65 percent of its technology graduates can find jobs just one month after the graduation, while the figure was 35 percent for economics studies.

Phuong from Lac Hong University said it is easy for technology students to find jobs, especially when Lac Hong is located near a lot of industrial zones. The school’s students have 6-month internship at enterprises, and many of them sign labor contracts with the enterprises when they are at the fourth month of the internship period.

NLD