Deputy Prime Minister Lê Tiến Châu and delegates at the opening ceremony. — VNA/VNS Photos Thanh Tùng

HÀ NỘI — The 8th National Student Startup Festival brought together 135 projects, hundreds of students, experts and businesses, spotlighting practical innovation from green tech and AI to community-focused solutions.

“It is time we change how we measure success. A university or college’s success should not be judged only by graduates finding jobs in their field, but by how many students become job creators – people who generate new value and opportunities for others," Minister of Education and Training Hoàng Minh Sơn said at the opening of the festival 2026 in Hà Nội on Saturday.

"Don’t study merely to hold a diploma and look for a job. Study to gain the capacity to lead, spot opportunities and have the courage to start a business,” he said.

Sơn said Việt Nam was entering a new development phase that would require higher-quality growth, improved labour productivity and stronger competitiveness.

He added that the gap between nations today lay in their ability to produce new knowledge and convert it into economic value.

The minister called for a strategic overhaul of education and training, arguing they must generate direct added value for the economy rather than serve solely as social welfare.

He urged reforms in curriculum and teaching methods, and a deeper change in the philosophy of human development, from adaptation to leading change, from knowledge reception to knowledge creation.

Entrepreneurship and innovation, Sơn said, should be integral to schooling. Rather than supplementary activities, they must help students identify real problems, design workable solutions, organise implementation and serve community interests. The aim would be to produce graduates with an innovative mindset and the capacity to create value, not only new businesses but leaders and job creators.

Citing recent policy initiatives, the minister said the legal groundwork had been in place to link education more closely with science, technology, businesses and markets.

At the festival, which featured workshops, mentoring, investor pitch sessions and business showcases, organisers sought to move projects beyond ideas. Judges and mentors pushed teams to clarify the problems they address, validate market demand, refine prototypes and develop feasible deployment plans.

Minister Hoàng Minh Sơn poses with students from Ngô Sỹ Liên Secondary School in Hà Nội.

The minister said the key measure was project maturity and development potential, not the number of awards.

He called on universities and vocational schools to become hubs of an innovation ecosystem, serving as strategic infrastructure where research is tested and commercialised.

Teachers should act as mentors and agents of the knowledge economy, guiding students to turn research into real products and services.

Addressing participants, Sơn warned against fearing failure and urged students to see the festival as a starting point, not an endpoint. He asked businesses and investors to continue supporting student initiatives, and pledged the ministry would work to improve institutions and legal frameworks to help schools become genuine centres of innovation.

Organisers said the festival’s practical orientation, linking projects to markets and partners, aimed to increase the number of student-led startups that can survive and scale, contributing to national economic transformation. — VNS