Industry group has 128 training universities, what is the human resource demand?

Ms. Chu Thi Ngoc Hanh, Chief Financial Officer of Navigos Group Vietnam Joint Stock Company, shared in the discussion

54% of universities participate in training

This morning (July 10), Ho Chi Minh City Open University organized a seminar on digital transformation, changes in the business environment and solutions to narrow the gap between training and practical requirements in the field of accounting and auditing.

At the seminar, Navigos Group Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh City Accounting Association announced information based on the statistics of publicly available data from 128 universities and 7 branches that provide accounting and auditing training nationwide, and the results of a survey of 471 businesses and 833 individuals working in this field in August and September 2023. The report provided an overview of the accounting and auditing profession in the new context in terms of training, the impact of technological change, recruitment and employment.

Specifically, the accounting and auditing majors are developing rapidly and occupy an important position in universities. There are currently 128 universities nationwide offering these majors (accounting for 54% of the total number of universities in Vietnam) and over 92,000 students studying them (accounting for nearly 5% of the total number of university students nationwide).

However, according to a report by Navigos Group Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh City Accounting Association, the teaching staff seems to have not kept up with the training scale. This report cites data from the Ministry of Education and Training showing that the number of students per lecturer in this group of majors is currently at 29.2 - this figure is 20% higher than the average level of training majors at 24.2. The rate of lecturers with doctoral degrees in the accounting - auditing group is at 27.5%, still low compared to the average level of universities at 32.4%.

There are 62 accredited training programs in the accounting and auditing group, accounting for 5.4% of the total number of accredited training programs of universities. This number is still modest compared to the number of training facilities of the group.

Overview of the discussion this morning

New graduates have difficulty finding jobs.

A noteworthy information in the report of Navigos Group Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh City Accounting Association is that new graduates have great difficulty finding jobs. From the survey results of 471 businesses and 833 individuals working in the field of accounting and auditing, this report shows that over 78% of businesses and over 83% of people working in this field rate the level of importance and very importance of technological development to the profession. The technological trends that are considered to have the greatest impact include: digitizing documents, records, big data and analysis, digitizing workflows and automating work.

Recruitment demand in the accounting and auditing sector is still quite limited, although there is more optimism from medium and large-sized enterprises. However, new graduates still have difficulty finding jobs. Because more than 44% of surveyed enterprises said they have no recruitment needs in the coming year. Accounting and auditing recruitment needs of enterprises focus on employees and team leaders/supervisors. New graduates are not given much attention, with only more than 7% of surveyed enterprises saying they have this need.

In particular, over 54% of surveyed businesses said that the challenge they faced was that candidates did not meet professional requirements. In addition, over 60% of individuals and 53% of businesses said that there was a significant or very large gap in professional knowledge between actual requirements and training in schools. This gap was seen in the ability to apply information technology, soft skills, and additional knowledge and skills...

Sharing in the discussion, Dr. Ha Thi Thuy, Head of the Finance and Accounting Department of the University of Economics and Finance, Ho Chi Minh City, said that in order to change students' thinking and improve their skills, we must boldly change the way we evaluate students through exams and final tests. The exam questions need to include thinking questions to enhance students' creativity.

Dr. Tran Khanh Lam, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Certified Public Accountants (VACPA), also said that there should be solutions to narrow the gap between reality and the training programs of schools in this field. In particular, universities need to continue to invest in training, improve the qualifications of lecturers, and increase investment in facilities and equipment for current teaching and learning.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhom-nganh-co-128-truong-dh-dao-tao-nhu-cau-nhan-luc-ra-sao-185240710170817657.htm