This was emphasized by Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Anh Dung - Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training at the seminar "Training high-quality human resources: Impetus from Resolution 57" organized by the People's Representative Newspaper on the morning of March 15.

Students studying science and technology are still limited.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Anh Dung - Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training, higher education institutions are not only places to train human resources to serve the development of innovation and digital transformation, but they also play the role of organizing science and technology, where most of the country's scientists are concentrated.

Conclusion 91 of the Politburo affirmed that in recent years, higher education has made significant contributions to its development. Especially thanks to the achievements, notably the sharp increase in research results and scientific publications. This has demonstrated the role and mission of the current higher education system in the system. In addition, Resolution 57 of the Politburo is also one of the great driving forces and opportunities for the higher education system.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Anh Dung said that currently, the enrollment scale in 2024 has about more than 180,000 students studying STEM-related majors - which are key majors in developing human resources for science and technology. This figure is higher than in 2023. If calculating the average size of enrollment in STEM majors over the past 4 years, the average increase is about 10% per year, this increase rate is higher than the average increase rate of enrollment scale of the whole country. In which, the enrollment scale of the whole country increases on average about 5.6% per year.

Meanwhile, in 2024, the scale of STEM training nationwide with the total scale of STEAM training will increase by about 11% compared to 2023, corresponding to over 62,000 students studying STEM majors. This shows that the current situation of students studying STEM is at about 55 students/10,000 people, this level accounts for about 30% of the total training scale.

Compared to developed countries and countries with modern science and technology, it can be seen that this figure in Vietnam is still modest. For example, in Singapore, this rate is about 46% of students studying in STEM fields, in Korea about 35%, in Finland about 36% and in Germany about 40%.

“It can be seen that the rate of students studying STEM, although in recent years there has been an increase in both enrollment and training scale, but in the general picture we still have a certain gap,” said the Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education.

Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training also identified promoting STEM training, paying special attention to attracting many talented people to study STEM majors in the coming time as the responsibility and mission of the university education system in contributing to the successful implementation of Resolution 57 of the Politburo.

Golden time to create human resources for science and technology

Regarding Resolution 57 of the Politburo and Resolution 193 of the National Assembly, Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training Nguyen Anh Dung said, This is a great opportunity to affirm the role and mission of higher education. Therefore, during the past time, the education sector has made many preparations as a premise for transforming the goals, ideas and breakthroughs in Resolution 57 and Resolution 193 into reality.

It can be mentioned that the Government immediately issued Resolution 03 / NQ-CP, the Politburo issued Conclusion 91 and in the near future will issue the Government's action program to demonstrate Conclusion 91. In addition, the Prime Minister previously approved the network planning and approved the education development strategy. These are extremely important tasks in human resource development, especially human resources in the STEM field.

Notably, we must also mention the semiconductor industry. For the first time, an industry or field has a Resolution or a decision from the Government on human resource development, so we must also recognize that this is a great concern of the Central Government to accompany and promote development. All of these contents are closely linked to human resources.

In addition, the Ministry of Education and Training has submitted to the Prime Minister many projects on training human resources to serve high-tech development. In particular, the projects focus on many breakthrough recommendations. It is expected that this month, the Ministry of Education and Training will also advise the Government to issue a pilot resolution on breakthrough mechanisms and policies to develop higher education.

In addition, network planning is implemented according to the Law on Planning and related guiding decrees focusing mainly on spatial development. Therefore, there are many wishes that we have not yet been able to fully apply the Law on Planning to solve. Therefore, a pilot resolution is needed to implement, and the Government is currently in the process of developing a pilot resolution.

At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Training is also building a strategic framework for higher education development, with many contents related to financial issues for higher education being presented in the draft. In particular, in the system of training human resources for high-tech development and a number of projects that the Ministry has submitted to the Prime Minister for consideration and approval, it pays great attention to the issue of mechanism.

With all the above programs and projects clearly identifying the importance of STEM, the whole industry will have to make great efforts to have more and more talented people studying and working in STEM fields. “We also hope and have set goals, even in the planning, the goal is to have more and more top universities, with reputation, regional and world stature in STEM”, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Anh Dung emphasized.

To do that, the Ministry of Education and Training has also clearly identified that investment must be focused and key. The Ministry of Education and Training will also approach in the direction of implementing talent training programs associated with research and innovation at prestigious training institutions to open up an attractive learning and research environment that attracts many good and talented lecturers and students. In particular, regarding the scholarship policy mechanism, tuition fees and preferential credit, the Ministry of Education and Training has also calculated to ensure attracting good people to study.

Besides, one of the solutions is to use the predecessors to sponsor the successors, and the business will also accompany. This means that if you use the predecessors' products, you will participate in the training process for the successors. For every product you use, the results of that product will be returned to support the successors.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Anh Dung shared: "The Ministry of Education and Training highly appreciates and is also very pleased that at this time there is Resolution 57 of the Politburo and Resolution 193 of the National Assembly, showing that the Central Government also pays more attention and favor to higher education."

For learners, the Ministry of Education and Training also clearly identifies: to attract them, there must be mechanisms and policies. To do so, the role of the media for learners plays an important role, especially statistics show that the ratio of female students studying STEM majors compared to male students is low. Therefore, we should communicate to increase the number of female students studying STEM majors. We especially look forward to the cooperation of the media and all higher education institutions in attracting students to study, especially female students.

The Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education said that for Vietnamese training institutions, there will be a lot of work to do from developing staff, developing and perfecting training programs, and linking with businesses. The support and companionship of the state, along with the internal strength of training institutions.

As for the mechanisms and policies that we need to remove, this is a great time and opportunity for business training institutions to propose to the industry and to competent authorities for consideration and adjustment. This is one of the golden times for us to work together to implement.

In addition, for training institutions, the Ministry of Education and Training encourages continuous learning to form alliances with each other, in order to form a network for STEM training. In this, it contributes to effectively exploiting the State's investment resources through alliances, links, and coordination of domestic and foreign training activities.

In particular, taking advantage of all possible resources to accompany and pilot well, first of all in the training alliance for semiconductor microchips. This is an alliance that needs to be promoted, for the top 5 technical schools, they will certainly have a role and mission to lead the pioneering for the entire system.

The Ministry of Education and Training has also recently issued a circular on the digital competency framework for learners in the national education system. These are the needs that will be guided at each level of education so that graduates will have certain digital competencies to enter the new era in the context of rapid scientific and technological development. Learners need to have certain competency foundations.

We can believe that universities and schools have been making great efforts and investing in improving quality to create output products that meet the requirements of the labor market and the desires of businesses and employers.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Anh Dung also hopes that businesses and schools will accompany him in the training process. At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Training also wants to specify, especially the recommendations and policies needed to participate more deeply, creating a more favorable corridor for teachers to participate in the training process at higher education institutions.

"The industry really hopes to receive those proposals and opinions so that we can consult with competent authorities to affirm the very important role of businesses in the training process at universities in the coming time. This is also a key task that we have set out to ensure further improvement of the quality of university education in the coming time," Mr. Dung emphasized.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/co-so-giao-duc-dai-hoc-dong-vai-tro-quan-trong-trong-phat-trien-nhan-luc-stem-post407439.html