Google offers 40,000 AI scholarships in Vietnam

Google Scholarship aims to equip the latest AI skills for the young generation of Vietnam, expanding development opportunities in the field of artificial intelligence for domestic human resources and startups.

Google, in collaboration with the National Innovation Center (NIC), the Ministry of Planning and Investment, has just launched the program “Building Vietnam’s AI Future” to promote the development of Vietnam’s artificial intelligence (AI). The company representative said the initiative focuses on two main pillars: Building for talent and Building for businesses. Each pillar will address its own key areas, but the overall goal is still to support the development of Vietnam’s human resources, nurture a thriving startup ecosystem, and strengthen the foundation to maximize AI adoption.

40,000 scholarships will be provided by Google to train AI human resources in Vietnam. Anh Quan

In particular, the "Digital Talent Development" program (under the Talent Creation pillar) provides 40,000 scholarships with 10 courses, including the newly launched additional course - Google AI Essentials to equip the latest AI skills for the young generation of Vietnam, with many learners being officials, lecturers and students of more than 80 universities and colleges nationwide. This program is upgraded from the "Digital Talent Development" program launched by Google and NIC in July 2022. To date, "Digital Talent Development" has equipped a set of important digital skills for 60,000 people of working age in Vietnam. Mr. Tran Duy Dong - Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment assessed that the program "Creating Vietnam's AI Future with Google - NIC" demonstrates the commitment and strong support of the Ministry and Google in promoting the AI ​​ecosystem in Vietnam to equip human resources with the necessary skills to seize opportunities of the new era, while supporting startups to innovate based on AI technology. At the program announcement event held in Hanoi on the morning of July 11, experts from Google commented that Vietnam is well-positioned to take advantage of AI opportunities thanks to its dynamic startup community, the proportion of young people who are tech-savvy accounting for 20% of the total population, and the government's support policies through the national strategy on AI. However, despite the promising economic growth prospects from AI, Vietnam still faces an important challenge, which is the shortage of human resources and experts in this field. It is estimated that there are only about 300 AI experts in the Vietnamese workforce today. This scarcity of human resources, combined with the lack of access to high-quality AI training programs, further widens the gap between market demand and human resource supply.

Mr. Marc Woo commented that AI is one of the key factors for Vietnam's digital economy to grow rapidly. Anh Quan

In addition, AI startups in Vietnam also face other challenges such as lack of access to leading AI experts and advisors to evaluate and validate products that meet market needs; lack of access to infrastructure, platforms and business-ready tools... essential factors for developing, commercializing and scaling their AI products. Sharing at the event, Mr. Marc Woo - Managing Director, in charge of Vietnam, Google Asia - Pacific said: "Vietnam's digital economy is expected to grow 11 times by 2030, reaching an incredible 220 billion USD, equivalent to nearly half of Vietnam's current GDP. AI is one of the key factors to realize the above forecast. Together with NIC, we believe that the initiative 'Building Vietnam's AI Future' will be a solid launching pad for domestic talents, startups and businesses, helping them make the most of Google's AI products and solutions". Director of NIC Vu Quoc Huy added that in the past, the unit has worked with Google to organize programs to support and accelerate startups, providing tens of thousands of scholarships to develop digital skills, especially in fields related to artificial intelligence, helping to develop the startup ecosystem, train IT human resources and promote AI applications in Vietnam. Source: https://thanhnien.vn/google-cung-cap-40000-suat-hoc-bong-ai-tai-viet-nam-185240711125025164.htm