Call for UK institutions to join 2016/17 Study & Career Options workshops in Vietnam

The British Council Vietnam would like to invite UK institutions to participate in a series of Study & Career Options workshops to be organised in year 2016/17, to promote UK education in three subject areas: Media & Communication Management; Tourism & Hospitality; and Built Environment.

Background

Built Environment

The construction sector in Vietnam has come third in attracting FDI capital nationwide (US$11.5 billion from nearly 2,000 FDI projects in the past 28 years) and the foreign capital inflow to this sector is expected to rise in the near future when new open economic policies take effect, especially the revision of laws involving construction, investment and enterprises, according to Vietnam Foreign Investment Agency. Engineers, architects and land surveyors are among the 8 professions that will allow free flow of skilled labour in ASEAN after the establishment of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in late 2015. These activities have set a higher demand of skilled labours in the field of construction in Vietnam.

Tourism & Hospitality

Vietnam’s tourism sector has also been taking measures to ensure its human resources are prepared to join the ASEAN labour market after the formation of AEC. According to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, local tourism agencies in Vietnam are in severe need of labour that has expertise, foreign language and soft skills. Local tourism training institutions have been focused on enhancing capacity of teaching staff and improving their curricula, fostering cooperation with foreign institutions such as Netherlands, France and Switzerland to improve quality of teaching.

Media & Communication Management

According to the Labour Market Forecasting Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, Social Sciences is one of the nine groups of jobs that attracted most labour in 2015, and the tendency will continue at least until 2020 – 2025. From now until 2025, this sector is expected to need 8,100 workers every year. In this subject area, Media and Communication, English linguistics, and International Relations are the ‘hottest” training majors that always require very high examination results from students.

The high reputation of UK institutions in Built Environment, Media and Communication, and Tourism and Hospitality education have become popular to Vietnamese students. These are also among the top 15 most interested subject areas among students going to study abroad, according to British Council Students Insight Survey 2015.

Benefits to participating UK institutions

UK institutions who participate in this Study & Career workshops series can send an academic to deliver a talk on a topic relating to relevant subject areas. The talk aims to improve knowledge of students about a specific professional topic, as well as career prospects in these subject areas. A counselling session will be organised after each talk, when participating institutions can provide further information about courses and scholarships offered to Vietnamese students.

In some workshops, the British Council may invite a representative from an industry association or an employer to join and provide information about labour market needs in these sectors. This activity will help strengthen messages about career prospects and employability benefits that UK institutions can provide to students.

Schedule

The Study and Career Options Workshops will be organised in June, September 2016 and January 2017 as in the table below. Each workshop is open for the participation of 4 UK institutions as maximum.

Workshop format

One workshop will be held at a public venue for each of the topics, each will last for 45 minutes and cover with the following contents:

• An academic talk on a topic relating to the relevant subject area by an academic from participating UK institution
• (optional) Career options in related industries and skills employers seek, presented by a representative from an industry association or an employer
• (optional) Personal experience of studying the relevant subject areas in the UK and career paths, presented by alumni
• Counselling session with students

The workshop content should cater to young professionals, university students, senior high school students, parents and lecturers, who are looking for in-depth information on studying the relevant subject area in the UK and career options. Depending on the topics of the academic talks, we will arrange interpretation if needed.

Participating UK institutions are expected to send British Council an abstract for their academic talk for prior discussion and promotion to attract a good number of Vietnamese audiences.

Participation fee

The British Council Vietnam will charge a participation fee of GBP900, exclusive of VAT, per institution for each workshop at each city.

A discount of 10% will be offered for UK institutions who register to participate in two subject areas in both cities.

A discount of 20% will be offered for UK institutions who register to participate in three subject areas in both cities.

The participation fee will cover programme planning, promotion, co-ordination, briefing and logistical support during the sessions. The participation fee will not cover international or domestic travel, accommodation, subsistence or freight.

Places will be offered on a on a first come first served basis. The relevance of academic topics will be taken into account in case we have more UK institutions registered than capacity.

Cancellation

Cancellation fees will be charged for withdrawal from the Study and Career Options Events, as of the date of receipt of notice of withdrawal (in writing):

How to apply:
Interested parties please fill in the attached application form.

Contact information:
Phuong Pham
Education Marketing Manager
British Council HCMC, Vietnam
Email: phuong.pham@britishcouncil.org.vn