We need to open a tourism training program soon.

Roundtable discussionThe societal demand for tourism personnel and the necessity of opening a tourism training program.Organized by the University of Social Sciences and Humanities on December 26th, the event was attended by scientists and managers from many universities offering majors and specializations related to tourism, as well as representatives from numerous agencies and businesses operating in the tourism sector nationwide.

The two main topics discussed at the seminar were the current state of demand for tourism human resources in Vietnam and the reasons for the necessity of establishing a university-level tourism training program in Vietnam.

Reports presented at the seminar all emphasized the current development prospects of the tourism industry as one of the country's key economic sectors. However, one of the most important issues today is the need to train a workforce for the tourism industry that is sufficient in quantity, balanced in occupational structure and training level, ensuring quality and aiming for professionalism in operations. According to the Draft Program for the Development of Human Resources in Vietnam's Tourism Industry, by 2015, Vietnam's tourism workforce should have at least 500,000 direct employees and approximately 1.5 million indirect employees. By 2020, it should have at least 750,000 direct employees and over 2 million indirect employees. By 2015, Vietnam's tourism workforce had to meet the following basic criteria: 70% - 80% of state management officials in tourism at the central and local levels had received professional training to meet job requirements; 60% - 70% of management staff in enterprises had received in-depth training and professional development in tourism; 60% of tourism service workers had received training and professional development in tourism, foreign languages, and information technology; 80% of tourism training institutions had training programs that met practical requirements, with 80% - 90% of teachers being trained and standardized...

[img class="caption" src="images/stories/2009/12/28/091226_1064_0128.jpg" border="0" alt="The seminar attracted the attention of many businesses in the tourism industry. (Photo: NA/USSH)" title="The seminar attracted the attention of many businesses in the tourism industry. (Photo: NA/USSH)" width="580"/>

Currently, about 70% of vocational training institutions, with an annual training capacity of 18,000 students, only meet 55% of societal demand. According to employers, the quality of vocational training at these institutions does not meet requirements and international standards. One of the important reasons for this situation is the limitations in the current tourism workforce training. Specifically, the university and college-level tourism training programs lack uniformity in naming and curriculum content. The national university-level training code does not have a separate code for tourism, even though there are currently 102 institutions offering college and university programs related to tourism. Furthermore, human resource training for the tourism industry is scattered across many different fields such as Vietnamese Studies, Geography, Culture, Business Administration, etc.

From an academic perspective, several reports assert that Tourism Studies is an independent, highly interdisciplinary science that has been and continues to be studied and taught at leading universities worldwide. The terms Tourism Studies and Tourism Science are being used more frequently, and a new term has emerged: Tourismology.

Based on the above data, the opinions of experts and businesses in the tourism industry at this seminar unanimously affirmed the urgent need for a separate training code for the Tourism industry within the national official training code system. This is of paramount importance in opening up opportunities for sustainable and long-term development for a new scientific field, namely Tourism Science, and more broadly, for the development and growth of a key and leading economic sector in the national economic system.