Developing professional tourism human resources

To ensure service quality, training facilities and businesses in the area are making efforts to focus on attracting and improving the quality of tourism human resources to meet the requirements of the new situation.

Having just graduated from the Intermediate Culinary Techniques Class K6, Vietnam - Korea College, Quang Ninh, Hoang Minh Hieu has been "ordered" by many restaurants and hotels to work as a chef. He said: I feel very lucky to have received professional training and the school has created conditions for me to regularly practice and intern at local businesses to hone my skills and gain experience. Right after graduation, I had a stable job and a relatively high income compared to students in other majors.

Hoang Minh Hieu’s case is also the story of many tourism students after graduation. Most students who have been trained at colleges and universities in the province have high skills, qualifications, and good skills, and are prioritized by companies and businesses and have stable jobs. However, compared to reality, the rate of this high-quality human resource is still quite low compared to market demand. Especially during the peak tourist season, many tourism units and companies are always “thirsty” for high-quality human resources.

In order to promptly supply and solve the problem of tourism human resources, vocational training institutions in the province have focused on increasing enrollment and improving the quality of training in this group of occupations to attract students. For example, at the Vietnam - Korea College in Quang Ninh, in 2024, they continuously enrolled students in the primary and intermediate levels of Culinary Arts and short-term training courses, such as: Beverage preparation, cake making techniques, trimming techniques, flower arrangement, home economics. This is also the second year the school has opened a second-year college training course in the fields of Tour Guide and Hotel Management.

In addition, vocational training institutions are striving to improve the quality and effectiveness of vocational training through cooperation with businesses. Students have the opportunity to intern at tourism businesses, access real working environments to perfect their professional skills. For example, at Ha Long University, the school has signed cooperation agreements with over 50 large enterprises and corporations operating in the fields of tourism, services, economics, and technology, to create a real learning environment and job opportunities for students during their studies and after graduation. Typical businesses are: Vingroup, Sun Group... 100% of graduates have jobs within 6 months, of which over 75% work in the field they were trained in.

In addition, from 2015 to 2020, the Provincial People's Council issued 8 resolutions for Ha Long University: Policies to attract high-quality human resources to work at the University; policies to attract students to study in the University's undergraduate training programs... In particular, students in tourism, services and some other majors of the University are enjoying preferential policies and very high scholarships from the province, up to a maximum of 250 million VND/course/student. These preferential policies and scholarships have contributed to increasing the quantity and quality of students at both input and output levels, contributing to relieving the "thirst" for tourism human resources in the locality and region.

In addition, businesses have also proactively built an international human resource network to improve service quality and meet the needs of tourists, especially foreign tourists. At Ambassador Cruise, there are about 10 foreign employees who are well-trained and professional. According to Mr. Pham Thanh Chien, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director of Ha Long Pacific Joint Stock Company, to ensure the quality of high-class services commensurate with high-quality customers, Ha Long Pacific's human resources are recruited from many countries, ensuring foreign language and professional skills, meeting high-class service standards. In addition, the unit also strengthens coordination with educational institutions, creating favorable conditions for students to practice on board, and receive direct training in a practical environment. This helps students practice professional skills, as well as practice soft skills in communication and behavior.

In the immediate future, the Department of Tourism will continue to attract tourism workers through online and direct connections, job fairs in localities, connecting tourism businesses with training facilities so that businesses can place orders according to their needs; continue to implement solutions to attract students to study tourism. At the same time, improve the quality of teaching and learning, especially vocational skills; arrange students to participate in conferences, seminars, events, and internships at tourism businesses during the tourist season, when there are many visitors, ensuring that they are in the major they are studying to help students easily access.

In the long term, the Department will assess the current situation and classify tourism human resources. From there, it will develop training programs and plans to improve capacity, professional skills, and technology application skills to improve the ability to adapt to the working environment in the new context for the province's tourism human resources according to each group of occupations. The Department will also work with universities and tourism training centers to ensure that the courses meet international standards and are suitable for market needs.

In addition to opening training courses and supporting businesses in training activities, the Department will also orient the tourism market and new tourism products, support human resource training for tourist areas and tourist destinations, etc. At the same time, create conditions for tourism training institutions in the province to link and cooperate with prestigious domestic and international training institutions in training teaching staff and human resources.