Need to open Tourism training code soon

DiscussionSocial demand for tourism human resources and the need to open tourism training codesorganized by the University of Social Sciences and Humanities on December 26 with the participation of scientists and managers from many universities that train in tourism-related majors and disciplines as well as representatives of many agencies and businesses operating in the tourism sector nationwide.

The two main contents discussed at the seminar were the current situation of tourism human resource demand in our country and the bases leading to the necessity of opening a university-level Tourism training program in Vietnam.

The reports at the seminar all emphasized the development prospects of the tourism industry as one of the country's key economic sectors. However, one of the most important issues today is to train a tourism workforce that is sufficient in quantity, balanced in terms of industry structure and training level, ensuring quality and aiming for professionalism in operations. According to the Draft Program for Developing Vietnam's Tourism Human Resources, by 2015, our country's tourism human resources must have at least 500,000 direct workers and about 1.5 million indirect workers. By 2020, there must be at least 750,000 direct workers and over 2 million indirect workers. By 2015, Vietnam's tourism human resources must meet the following basic criteria: 70% - 80% of the state management staff on tourism at the central and local levels are professionally trained to meet job requirements; 60% - 70% of the management staff in enterprises are professionally trained and educated in tourism; 60% of tourism service workers are professionally trained and educated in tourism, foreign languages, and information technology; 80% of tourism training establishments provide training programs that meet practical requirements with 80% - 90% of teachers trained and standardized...

[img class="caption" src="images/stories/2009/12/28/091226_1064_0128.jpg" border="0" alt="The discussion attracted the attention of many businesses in the tourism industry. (Photo: NA/USSH)" title="The discussion attracted the attention of many businesses in the tourism industry. (Photo: NA/USSH)" width="580"/>

Currently, about 70% of training facilities with an annual training capacity of 18,000 students only meet 55% of social needs. According to the assessment of labor recruitment enterprises, the training quality of current vocational training facilities does not meet the requirements and does not meet international standards. One of the important reasons for this situation is the current limitations in tourism human resource training. That is, the tourism training program at university and college levels at training facilities does not have a unified name as well as the content of the curriculum. The national university training code does not have a separate training code for the tourism industry, although there are currently 102 training facilities recruiting students for college and university levels related to tourism occupations. Human resource training for the tourism industry is scattered in many different training fields such as Vietnamese Studies, Geography, Culture, Business Administration, etc.

From an academic perspective, some reports assert that Tourism Studies is an independent, highly interdisciplinary science that has been and is being researched and taught at leading universities around the world. The terms Tourism Studies and Tourism Science have been and are being used more frequently and a new term has emerged: Tourismology.

With the above data, the opinions of experts as well as businesses operating in the tourism industry at this seminar unanimously affirmed the urgent need to have a separate training code for the Tourism industry in the official training code system of the country. This is extremely important in opening up sustainable and long-term development opportunities for a new science, Tourism science, and more broadly, for the development and growth of an entire key and spearhead economic sector in the national economic system.