VNU 12+ Program: Discovering, attracting, training and early career guidance for high school students

The Talent Incubation Program from High School at VNU (abbreviated as VNU 12+) applies to students of high schools under VNU. According to Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Bao Son - Vice President of VNU, with the mission of training high-quality, highly qualified human resources, nurturing talents; contributing to building, developing and protecting the country; being the backbone and locomotive in the Vietnamese higher education system, VNU is a pioneer in building the VNU 12+ training program in Vietnam.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Bao Son - Vice President of VNU emphasized the goal of discovering, attracting, training and early career guidance for high school students of the VNU 12+ program.

The 12+ training model has been implemented in many advanced countries in the world and has brought about remarkable results. Learning from and developing those achievements, VNU has built the Talent Incubation Program from high school level at VNU with the goal of discovering, attracting, training and early career guidance for high school students with potential, capacity and talent at VNU. The program aims to select, advise on careers and create conditions for students to register early (study in advance) some courses in university training programs suitable for the career direction they have chosen.
Career counseling, orientation and early learning for each student will be organized in the form of individualized training with direct guidance (coaching) from qualified and prestigious lecturers of VNU. During the early learning process, students can participate in scientific research, practice, and internship with the instructor or the instructor's research group.
VNU 12+ creates conditions for students to shorten their university training time based on career orientation and early study, scientific research, practice, and internship. They also have early access to international scholarship programs, increasing their success rate when studying at university.

The program is expected to attract excellent students to study at high school level at VNU; create a source of training, fostering and developing a team of scientists meeting international standards in the future of VNU, especially scientists in the field of basic science.
In 2014, VNU issued a regulation that high school students with outstanding qualities and abilities can accumulate knowledge and register early for university studies, which has received mixed opinions. However, after 10 years of implementation with many successful cases of advanced study in university programs, it has initially proven the correctness and foresight of VNU and is consistent with world trends.
University of Social Sciences and Humanities pioneers in implementing the VNU 12+ program
Sharing at the Admissions and Career Guidance Day for students, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Quang Lieu - Principal of the High School for the Gifted in Social Sciences and Humanities said that with the goals and superiority of the VNU 12+ program, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities has pioneered in guiding and advising students to register for university courses.
After 2 years of implementing the program, the number of students registering has gradually increased and the results are remarkable. In the 2022-2023 school year, the school had 11 students registering for undergraduate programs at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and member schools of VNU. In the 2023-2024 school year, this number increased to 20 students registering.

Le Hoai Nam - a History major student who registered to study cumulative university credits in the 2022-2023 school year, currently a first-year student at the Faculty of History, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, confided: "Thanks to registering early for the university program at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, I learned many new things and gained a deeper understanding of knowledge to partly meet the requirements of constant innovation in my major. I learned how to think and work creatively when studying with seniors."
Sharing with teachers and scientists, students all said that accumulating university credits has helped them gain more experience in studying at university level, such as self-study and working in groups with other students. They have learned more about choosing their own major; accumulated knowledge and many credits that can be applied in high school classes; helped them shorten their university study time and especially get to interact and learn from leading lecturers and scientists. They said that this is the biggest advantage of high school students at VNU that no other educational institution has (opinions of Tran Hung, class 11 majoring in History, Dinh Pham Huong Giang, class 11 majoring in Literature 2 and Bui Nguyen Minh Thuan, class 11 CLC).
In addition to certain benefits, advanced learning also causes a lot of pressure for students, so before registering for advanced learning, they must calculate very carefully. Dinh Thi Thu Thao, Bach Gia Linh, grade 11 majoring in History; Dinh Pham Huong Giang, Do Ngoc Diep, grade 11 majoring in Literature 2 confided: when registering for advanced learning, students need to pay attention to their learning ability, which must be at a stable to good level in order to balance the courses they register for. Otherwise, the average cumulative score will not be high and when choosing to advance learning, students must know how to balance between studying and other activities in life so as not to be overloaded and not to be distracted from their main studies in high school.

Regarding the time of registration, according to students who have accumulated credits in the past two years, they all agree that: for social sciences and humanities in grade 10, you will have to evaluate your learning ability, whether it is suitable to start studying ahead or not. After determining that you can, continue to survey the training program, the basic subjects of the school and the basic subjects of the industry as well as the major to arrange the most suitable study schedule for the following semesters. By grade 11, you will start registering for one to two basic credits or basic subjects of the industry and the final results of the first semester will be the best answer to the question of whether to continue studying ahead or not. When you study one to two more credits and still get good results, it means you can continue. At this point, students should note to consider their own ability and learning methods at university level, if you find it difficult, ask for advice from experts and instructors.
With the current results, it has shown the pioneering nature of advanced/early learning, VNU has issued a very correct regulation VNU 12+ on allowing high school students of VNU to advance their studies. The regulation on advanced learning is a strategic regulation that needs to be promoted and expanded in the coming time, in order to promote the outstanding and typical abilities of students, and to nurture and develop talents for the country.