New Insights for Soft Skills Development in Vietnamese Business Schools: Defining Essential Soft Skills for Maximizing Graduates’ Career Success

Authors: Hang T. T. Truong, Ronald S. Laura, Kylie Shaw

Abstract:

Within Vietnam's system of higher education, its schools of business play a vital role in supporting the country’s economic objectives. However, the crucial contribution of soft skills for maximal success within the business sector has to date not been adequately recognized by its business schools. This being so, the development of the business school curriculum in Vietnam has not been able to 'catch up', so to say, with the burgeoning need of students for a comprehensive soft skills program designed to meet the national and global business objectives of their potential employers. The burden of the present paper is first to reveal the results of our survey in Vietnam which make explicit the extent to which major Vietnamese industrial employers’ value the potential role that soft skill competencies can play in maximizing business success. Our final task will be to determine which soft skills employers discern as best serving to maximize the economic interests of Vietnam within the global marketplace. Semi-structured telephone interviews have been conducted with the 15 representative Head Employers of Vietnam's reputedly largest and most successful of the diverse business enterprises across Vietnam. The findings of the study indicate that all respondents highly value the increasing importance of soft skills in business success. Our critical analysis of respondent data reveals that 19 essential soft skills are deemed by employers as integral to business workplace efficacy and should thus be integrated into the formal business curriculum. We are confident that our study represents the first comprehensive and specific survey yet undertaken within the business sector in Vietnam which accesses and analyses the opinions of representative employers from major companies across the country in regard to the growing importance of 19 specific soft skills essential for maximizing overall business success. Our research findings also reveal that the integration into business school curriculums nationwide of the soft skills we have identified is of paramount importance to advance the national and global economic interests of Vietnam.

Keywords: Business curriculum, business graduates, employers’ perception, soft skills.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1124539

References:

[1] M. Alvesson & K. Sko¨ldberg, “Reflexive Methodology: Interpretation and Research,” Sage, 2000, London Bowers, M. Y.
[2] Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo. ‘Tổng kết và đánh giá mười năm đổi mới giáo dục và đào tạo’
[‘Summary and Evaluation of Ten Years of Renovation in Education and Training’], Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo, Hà Nội, 1997.
[3] N.T. Ca, “Universities as Drivers of the Urban Economies in Asia: The Case of Vietnam”. Policy Research Working Paper: World Bank, 2006.
[4] T. Q. Duoc, “Quality of Business Graduates in Vietnamese Institutions: Multiples Perspectives. Journal of Management Development”, 2006, 26(7), 629-643.
[5] T. Q. Duoc & M. Christoph, “Quality of Business Graduates in Vietnamese Institutions: Multiple Perspectives”, Journal of Management Development, 2007, Vol.26 Iss: 7pp. 629 – 643.
[6] J. David, ‘Leadership and Professional Development: An Integral Part of the Business Curriculum’, Business Education Innovation Journal, 2010, Vol.2.
[7] M. B. Davies, “Doing a successful research project: Using qualitative and quantitative methods”, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
[8] B. DiCicco-Bloom & B. F. Crabtree, 2006, “The qualitative research interview”, Medical Education, 2006, 40, 4, 314-321.
[9] E. Hommerichhausen, “The effective engineer – the soft skills”, p roceedings of 5th international colloquium on engineering education, South Carolina, 2002, October 24-27, Available from http://www.uri.edu/iep/colloquia/2002/effective_engineer.pdf
[10] C. Fotopoulos & E. Psomas, “The use of quality management tools and techniques in ISO 9001:2000 certified companies: the Greek case”, International Journal of Productivity &Performance Management, 2008, Vol. 58, No.6, pp. 564-580.
[11] Giao Giuc Vietnam, ‘63% sinh vien that nghiep, chat luong giao duc co van de’. Retrieved on Sep 20, 2012. From http://giaogiuc.net.vn
[12] I. Grugulis, “Putting skills to work: learning and employment at the start of the century”, Human Resource Management Journal, 2003, 13(2): 3- 12.
[13] P. Klaus, “Communication breakdown” California Job Journal, 2010, Vol 28, pp.1-9.
[14] S. Kvale, “Doing Interviews”, Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2009.
[15] S. Kvale & S. Brinkmann, “Interviews: Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing”, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2008.
[16] Lei Han, “Soft Skills – Ask s Wharton MBA”, Website retrieved in 2015 from https://bemycareercoach.com/soft-skills/hard-skills-softskills. html.
[17] R. L. Laud & M. Johnson, “The future of the MBA curriculum: improving relevancy through evidenced based soft skills”, Proceedings of the Academy of Educational Leadership (AEL), Allied Academies International Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 4-7, 2012, 17(1), 63-68.
[18] G. W. Mitchel, L. B. Skinner and B. J. White, “Essential Soft Skills for Success in the Twenty First Century Workforce as Perceived by Business Educators”, 2010, pp. 43-53.
[19] C. Nealy, “Integrating soft skills through active learning in the management classroom”, Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 2005, 2(4), 1-6.
[20] P. X. Nha, “Mô hình đào tạo gắn với nhu cầu doanh nghiệp ở Việt Nam hiện nay”, Scientific Magazine, Hanoi National University, economics and Business 25(2009), pp.1-8.
[21] Oblinger, G. Diana, Verville, Anne-Lee, “What business wants from higher education”, American Council on Education, 1998, Oryx Press series on higher education.
[22] OECD, “Innovation and growth”, 2007, Retrived from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/2/31/39374789.pdf.
[23] OneVietnam, "Students in Ho Chi Minh City Are Weak in Soft Skills.", 2010, retrieved from http://talk.onevietnam.org/students-in-ho-chi-minhcity- are-weak-in-soft-skills/.
[24] W. S. M. Osman, A. Girardi, & M. Paull, “Educator perceptions of soft skill development: An examination within the Malaysian public higher education sector”, The International Journal of Learning, 2012, 18(10), pp.50-62.
[25] J. Payne, “The unbearable lightness of skill: the changing meaning of skill in UK policy discourses and some implications for education and training”, Journal of Education Policy, 2000, 15(3):353–369.
[26] H. Perreault, “Business educators can take a leadership role in character education”, Business Education Forum, 2004, 59(1): 23-24.
[27] K. K. S. Pittenger, M. C. Miller & J. Mott, “Using real-world standards to enhance students' presentation skills”, Business Communication Quarterly, 2004, Vol. 67(3). p 327-336
[28] M. Saunders &J. Machell, "Understanding emerging trends in higher education curricula and work connections," Higher Education Policy 13, 2000, pp. 287–302.
[29] S. Smith, “The Skills Challenge: Preparing a Bridge for the Workforce Skills Gap”, In W. Whihelm, J. Logan, S. Smith and L. Szul, Meeting the Demand: Teaching “Soft” Skills. Delta Phi Epsilon, 2002.
[30] W. Stephen, P. Doughty, P. J. Gray, J. E. Hopcroft, & I. F. Silvera, “Observations on undergraduate education in computer science, electrical engineering, and physics at select universities in Vietnam”, In V. E. Foundation (Ed.), Washington: Vietnam Education Foundation, 2006, pp. 120.
[31] P. Tamkin, M. Cowling & W. Hunt, “People and the Bottom Line. London: The Work Foundation, 2007.
[32] E. Trauth, D. Farwell & D. Lee, "The IS expectation gap: Industry expectation versus academia preparation," 1993, MIS Quarterly 17: 293- 307.
[33] Q. T Trung & Swierczeck, “Skills development in higher education in Vietnam”, Asia Pacific Business Review, 2009, 15(4), 565-586.
[34] T. T. Tuyet, “Limitation on the development of skills in higher education in Vietnam”, Higher Education, 2013, 65(5), 631-644.
[35] M. Watts & R. K. Watts, “Developing soft skills in students", 2008, retrieved from http://l08.cgpublisher.com/proposals/64/index_htm
[36] S. Weligamage, “Graduates' employability skills: Evidence from literature review, Sub Theme A–Enhancing Employability through Quality Assurance–ASAIHL”, 2009, Retrieved from http://mit.kln.ac.lk/uokr/ASAIHL/SubThemeA8.pdf
[37] T. J. Vallely & B. Wilkinson, “Vietnamese higher education: crisis and response,” Memorandum, Higher Education Task Force, Harward kennedy school, Ash institute for democratic governance and innovation Asia programmes, 2008, pp.1-11. http://www.hks.harvard.edu/innovations/asia/Documents/HigherEducati onOverview112008.pdf
[38] VOER, “Một số vấn đề về thất nghiệp”, Available from http://voer.edu.vn/m/mot-so-van-de-ve-that-nghiep/73b673e4.
[39] U. Yucelt, “Comparative study of students’ perception on quality of MBA programs”, Journal of International Marketing Research, 1998, Vol. 23 (1). p27-33.
[40] P. T. Huyen, “Higher education in Vietnam: A look from labour market angle”, Hanoi: Vietnam Development Forum. Retrieved on December 22, 2008 from http://www.vdf.org.vn/ Doc/2008/VDFConf_WIPHuyen.pdf.