DTU and Business

On May 12th, in order to meet the increased demand for qualified graduates of Tourism in the Danang area and to broaden job opportunities for students, DTU partnered with the Danang Department of Culture, Sport, and Tourism to host a Career Orientation and Recruitment session for Tourism students. 

   

Many tourism and hospitality managers and more than 1,000 students from the Danang area attended the event, including the Intercontinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, the À La Carte, the Sunrise Hoi An, Ba Na Hills, the Fusion Maia Danang Resort, Centara Sandy Beach Danang, the Grand Mercure, the Ben Thanh Tourist Company, the Viet Da Tourist Company, the Montgomerie Links Golf Course, the Golden Gate, the Phuong Dong Viet Tourist Company and the Thang Long Technical High School.

   

To help students understand more about their future careers and new opportunities and challenges when Vietnam officially joins the ASEAN community, DTU held several small forums to share information and experience with hospitality professionals, including a house-keeping forum,  a bar forum, a tour guide forum, a tour operations forum, a front desk forum and a kitchen skills forum.  Anh Quyen, a student of Tourism and Hospitality said: “I am a second year student, I spend much time researching information about my future job and participate in many tourism activities. The Career Orientation and Recruitment for Tourism Students session is an important event for us because it helps us to understand more about future careers and to meet with travel companies in search of a job. I have joined several of the forums and I enjoyed the front desk forum very much. This job requires me to dress well and communicate well in foreign languages. We want to prepare ourselves well now for our future jobs.”

 

 

At the event, DTU signed a collaboration agreement with the Danang Eden Plaza for training and research projects. The Danang Eden Plaza is a 3-star establishment with 61 rooms, flats and a business service center. 

A seminar entitled “Hospitality Workforce Quality at ASEAN Integration” was held at the job fair, providing a professional exchange forum on the tourism industry. Hotel managers and tour operators spoke at the workshop, to give students a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges in the hospitality industry when Vietnam becomes part of the ASEAN Economic Community. 

 

  

Mr. Tran Chi Cuong, Deputy-Director of the Danang Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism, said: Danang tourism has developed fast recently. The number of tourists visiting Danang has increased as well as the number of hotels and restaurants in the city. By 2020, the city needs 30,000 people working in the tourism and hospitality sector. However, the speed of training and recruitment has led to a shortage of tourism professionals. When the ASEAN Economic Community is officially established, the ASEAN Ministers of Hospitality recognize that they must all increase the number of qualified tourism staff to meet actual requirements during globalization. Workshops such as the Tourism Career Orientation and Recruitment for students held today provide a clear orientation for students. At the same time, universities can learn more about employer requirements and plan their training accordingly.  

 

  

 

Mr. Truong Nam Thang, a senior tourism official involved in human resource development on the EU project, said: “Universities and business should work together to achieve the same goals to increase the size and quality of the tourism workforce. In order to do this, we must establish a national set of professional standards, design a training programs and train lecturers to graduate highly qualified workers."

Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hien, Director of Human Resources at the Danang Intercontinental Sun Peninsula Resort said: “In addition to career aspirations, you should study hard. Once you have a good working attitude, good communication, good English and other professional skills, you will be able to get a good job on graduation.”

Speaking at the event, Distinguished Teacher Le Cong Co, DTU President and Provost, said: “Tourism is a smokeless industry. When tourists travel to some new place, they want to enjoy good food, contemplate the scenery and discover a new culture. Therefore, hospitality workers have to make a good impression to tourists by their appearance, language skills, and tact. This is why working in tourism is harder than in other sectors; they have to transmit the local cultural identity to all tourists. And more than anything, businesses and universities have to team up more to provide society with a high-quality workforce in hospitality, to contribute to the development of the city and to create a good life in the most livable city of Vietnam.”