Helping students be ready for the demands of modern agriculture

On August 25 in Dong Hoi city (Quang Binh province), the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held a conference to train and develop human resources for agriculture and rural development in the Central and Central Highlands regions in order to serve the industry in a sustainable way. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan chaired the event.

Many majors recruit no more than 10 students

As of 2022, the Central region has 44 higher education institutions including 2 regional universities, the University of Danang and the University of Hue. These institutions offer training in many key industries (ocean economy, logistics, information technology, processing, manufacturing, tourism, etc.) which are at the level of regional and international standards, meeting the requirements of high-quality labor for the Central region's socio-economic development. A number of universities in the Central region have agricultural training system. The prime examples are University of Agriculture and Forestry (Hue University), Vinh University, and Nha Trang University.

In the case of the Central Highlands, universities and colleges in the region are currently training 133 undergraduate majors, 20 master's majors and 11 doctoral training majors, mainly in the fields of agriculture, food, animal husbandry, and many more.

But the current situation looks grim. Enrollment in agricultural majors tends to decrease. in recent years, the enrollment rate has suffered a sharp drop. Many faculties and majors only enroll 10 students at maximum each year.

Dr. Tran Thanh Duc, Rector of University of Agriculture and Forestry, said, “We used to welcome over 2,000 new students per year. Now, only 800 - 1,000 students are enrolled at the university. As a result, agricultural human resource training in the near future will be difficult and there will be a shortage of specialized human resources for agricultural industries in high demand.”

At the conference, Minister Le Minh Hoan raised the importance of promoting research, transfer and application of science and technology in production, creating breakthroughs in fundamental and comprehensive innovation of training and human resource development for the region’s agriculture and rural development.

“From agricultural production thinking to agricultural economy thinking, human resources must also be in line with that change. The current context calls for a broader mind about agricultural human resources in order to adapt to agricultural economic thinking, not agricultural production thinking. We shall not train people only to have them working for businesses, but instead qualified personnel who can walk their own path”.

Proactively linking training models

According to Dr. Tran Thanh Duc, Rector of University of Agriculture and Forestry, in order to have new developments, training institutions must link with businesses, thereby creating a linkage between training and employment, securing high and stable income for graduates.

“Since last year we have cooperated with nearly 40 domestic enterprises wishing to recruit graduates. There are times when businesses leave up to 2, 2000 vacancies, but we can only meet 800 positions. This is also a new starting point in attracting students,” said Dr. Duc.

At the Vietnam National Univerasity of Agriculture (VNUA), there are currently 14 specialized faculties, 30 institutes/centers/companies, and 82 science and technology models. More than 90% of the lecturers and researchers have postgraduate training in countries with advanced education as well as science and technology such as the USA, Australia, the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Denmark, Norway, France, Ireland, etc.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan, Director of VNUA, said that the university is recruiting and offering training in 43 majors at the university level, 17 at the master's level and 15 at the doctoral level. "After this conference, there will be a common voice of management agencies, training institutions and businesses. We will be able to assess the current situation and implement the linkage model between training institutions and enterprises which has been effectively applied in countries like the Netherlands, Japan, and Israel”.

Concluding the conference, Minister Le Minh Hoan said that training and human resource development in the agriculture and rural development sector is an important premise to improve production, labor productivity and competitiveness and ensure the sustainable development of the agricultural industry, an inevitable trend which brings long-term value to universities, training institutions, and agribusinesses.

"The cooperation between universities and businesses on human resource development in agriculture and rural development is not limited to human resource training, market supply, etc. We must work together to build a brand of specialized universities, sharing social responsibilities. Cooperation must aim towards the business - market mindset so that qualified, trained personnel can reach the market," said the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.