Students from Trần Văn Giàu High School in Bình Thạnh District share their concerns at a career counseling workshop in mid-October. — Photo sggp.org.vn

HCM City — Students should consider many factors such as their weaknesses and strengths, as well as interests, before deciding on a particular training path, experts have said. 

University entrance exam scores for some faculties have risen for the academic year 2020 - 2021, putting 12th graders under stress. 

Some popular university faculties are “frozen” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so it is important for authorities and parents to help students set a realistic goal and appropriate learning path.

At a recent career counseling workshop held by the HCM City Department of Education and Training, National University of HCM City and the Education and Training Developing Centre in the South in mid-October, Mai Nguyễn Hồng Hạnh, a student in the 12A1 class in Trần Văn Giàu High School, said she was concerned about the increasing number of new graduates that were not able to get a job.

She is now even more worried because the pandemic has left many people jobless. 

Phạm Doãn Nguyên, deputy director of Admissions and Communication Centre, under the HCM City University of Economics and Finance, said that “hot faculties” are not actually determined by the labour market. Instead, the concept of “hot labourers” in each field is what is considered.

Regardless of the negative effect that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought, it is an individual's effort that determines whether they can stay in an organisation, he said.

Meanwhile, the deputy director of the HCM City’s University of Technology’s Admission and Communication Consulting Department, Nguyễn Trần Ngọc Phương, said that in the context of global integration, students today should not totally buy the idea what they learn in school is going to be what they will be working on later.

Instead, it is necessary to understand that a specific major can provide students with different career paths and opportunities in the future.

For example, a student who graduates in English Language Arts can work as a foreign language teacher, book translator, or international relations staff, among other professions.

With that, after selecting their major, students need to learn necessary skills related to their dream jobs and their own abilities and interests in order to secure a job after graduation.

The vice president of the HCM City Vocational Education Association, Trần Anh Tuấn, said that between 2020 and 2030, some majors with increasing labour recruitment needs will be network security, information security, mobile application programming, artificial intelligence, logistics, e-commerce, international law, and credit-insurance, among others.

Determining career goals

According to the deputy director of HCM City Department of Education and Training, Nguyễn Văn Hiếu, career counseling for 12th graders is an annual activity organised at the beginning of the school year to give them an overview of the market and training programmes, and to help them determine a career goal relevant to their ability, interest and family conditions.

Psychologist Tô Nhi A stressed the importance of students acknowledging their strengths and weaknesses, no matter what kind of training they choose to pursue in the future.

The former deputy director of the HCM City National University, Nguyễn Đức Nghĩa, added that the Ministry of Education and Training has kept a tradition of using the high school graduation exam results for university and college admission. But there are other admission options such as direct admission or competency tests that students need to be informed of to make a wise decision for their training path. — VNS