SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET STUDENT DETAILS Student ID number: Student name: Chung Ngọc Bảo Hân UNIT AND TUTORIAL DETAILS Unit name: Tutorial group: Seminar Lecturer or Tutor name: ASSIGNMENT DETAILS Title: AEn-T122WSB-6 Monday 12-3, Wednesday 8-11 Gabriel Ryan The necessity of training soft skills in Vietnam Length: 1739 Due date: Home campus (Where you are enrolled): DECLARATION x Unit number: Tutorial day and time: Academic English 21000466 11/04/2022 Date submitted: 07/04/2022 Campus B: 279 Nguyen Tri Phuong St., Ward 10, District I hold a copy of this assignment if the original is lost or damaged I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been copied from any other student’s work x or from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made in the assignment x I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been submitted by me in another (previous or current) assessment, except where appropriately referenced, and with prior permission from the Lecturer / Tutor / Unit Coordinator for this unit No part of the assignment/product has been written/produced for me by any other person except x where collaboration has been authorised by the Lecturer / Tutor /Unit Coordinator concerned I am aware that this work will be reproduced and submitted to plagiarism detection software programs for x the purpose of detecting possible plagiarism (which may retain a copy on its database for future plagiarism checking) Student’s signature: Chung Ngọc Bảo Hân Note: An examiner or lecturer / tutor has the right to not mark this assignment if the above declaration has not been signed 1 ARO 00380 08/15 The necessity of training soft skills in Vietnam In the last decade, Vietnam is one of the countries which has the fastest developing economy in the world To continue growing the country, and adapt efficiently to the modern era, Vietnam is required to raise the quality of the workforce, facing challenges as well as the difficulties of globalization However, Vietnam has been unable to produce a highly qualified workforce (Mitchell et al., 2010, as cited in Truong & Ronald, 2015), and one of the most considerable reasons is that Vietnamese education has provided poor soft skills for business institutions (Dang, 2009, as cited in Truong & Ronald, 2015) In particular, soft skills have become more and more essential nowadays, that is abilities referring to personalities such as attitudes and communication skills In this paper, the importance of training soft skills in Vietnam will be analyzed To be specific, the benefits that soft skills give to individuals as well as businesses, the lack of soft skills in Vietnam education, and recommendations for improvement, will be considered To begin with, soft skills need to be prepared significantly since there are considerable advantages for people To be specific, the importance of soft skills had been proved in a study conducted by Harvard University with the Carnegie Foundation and Stanford Research Center (Man, 1918, as cited in National Soft Skills Association, 2015) The research concluded by the finding is that only 15% of employment success is based on technical competence, whereas 85% of career success is responsible for soft and interpersonal skills Besides that, soft skills also benefit both individuals and organizations Initially, soft skills bring to individuals various advantages in both the undergraduate period and after graduation In the education or undergraduate period, students with higher soft skills can benefit more than others Particularly, soft skills like time management and organization can support students to plan their learning schedule logically, avoid time pressure, and anxiety, help students to study efficiently, and complete assignments on time Moreover, undergraduates can also utilize their free time to participate in extra classes, join a part-time summer job and reduce stress by longer relaxing time A study by Richelle and Blair (2019) conducted by examination on engineering undergraduates when they apply the Time Management Behavior Scale showed a finding that students can take advantage of time management skills to raise their achievements at school easily Not only time management, convenient soft skills such as communication and problem-solving skills also benefit students in many aspects It can be seen that with flexibility in communication, people, especially students, can have more friends, and expand social relationships to be appreciated, as well as welcomed in academic environments Besides that, problem-solving is an essential skill that every student needs to practice A paper by Petrie et al (2020) cited that critical thinking abilities are widely regarded in academia, especially at the university level, where their development is a major goal worldwide The same study also showed that secondary education plays an important role in training soft skills for students to prepare for their college life In general, strong soft skills can help people at the undergraduate level to improve academic performance, connect with others positively and get ready for college as well as after college Furthermore, soft skills are necessary after graduation In particular, soft skills are determinants of business success not only for employees but also for people who run a company With individuals who are employees and job seekers, good sources of soft skills can raise their confidence in job interviews, open more opportunities and enhance their strength in the workforce However, soft skills are features that are related to personalities and need a long period to be recognized In other words, it is believed that recruiters pay more attention to the information, experiences, and work achievements that were written on the CV than the life skills of candidates Admittedly, hard skills are compulsory for employees who work for a specific major, yet soft skills are deciding factors of people’s ability, attitude, and long-term collaboration Take an example, in a survey conducted on the Fortune 500 and non-Fortune 500 business, Baldi et al (2016) realized that the majority of recruiters nowadays focus on employees’ soft skills despite the importance of GPA The study also explained that GPA is necessary for claiming individuals’ professional knowledge, but people might not be hired without soft skills and good experiences Overall, employees and also job seekers need soft skills because of various benefits that affect career success and long-term advantages in the workplace After college, many people want to work for business, while others plan to follow a certain career like running a company In this situation, soft skills or life skills are indispensable elements that decide on their business success and raise their competitiveness in the marketplace To be specific, people can expand their social relationships, build a positive workplace and create long-term cooperation with communication, teamwork as well as interpersonal skills Moreover, the ability of organization, time management, and problem-solving skills are extremely important for leadership Hence, soft skills are required for business owners remarkably According to Newman and Firki (2022), the amount of business in the United States for specific and in the world for general has increased significantly In other words, business owners have to prepare for a seriously competitive environment Also, people who are clever and have leadership skills can increase the competitiveness of their business in the marketplace In summary, individuals who run a business need good soft skills as motivation for the development of their company 4 The benefits of soft skills are not only for individuals including employees and business owners in specific but also for business in general To be specific, businesses can build a positive workplace and develop successfully Workers with good communication can support businesses to expand social relationships Additionally, employees with a good source of soft skills also have an incentive to rely on each other and build positive collaboration According to Tem et al (2020), the important things for business success are essential soft skills, inquisitive mindset, pursuing professional leads, expanding rapidly technical competence, and establishing business connections In another study, Ackerman (2020) also assumed that emotional intelligence such as social communication and connection is necessary for healthy relationships that impact business success With the top soft skills of potential workers, the business can be supported maximumly to enhance strengths, and open more opportunities On the other hand, finding and recruiting potential candidates with both complete professional knowledge and strong soft skills are challenges for business It is explained that soft skills have not been paid attention to nowadays In the other words, young generations are facing the reality of poor soft skills, which are negatively affecting the modern workforce, as well as the innovative era A study conducted by Deloitte Access Economics (2017) identified that approximately nine in ten recruiters had believed in their employees’ teamwork ability and critical thinking skills, however, 25% of them showed the difficulty in employees’ lack of soft skills then In addition, the main focus on career skills has become a significant problem in many cultures, especially Vietnam According to Truong and Laura (2015), Vietnam's economy is developing considerably and requires the young generation to acquire the necessary skills for the challenges of environments and globalization That means education in Vietnam needs to focus more on training soft skills for students instead of paying most attention to hard skills and professional theory It is believed that soft skills are not the most influential features of success at work, as people need to find candidates with complete knowledge of specific majors Nevertheless, the current labor market needs to find complete employees with both important skills It is cited that soft skills cannot be overstated, and technical skills are not enough for the highly competitive global workplace as nowadays (Dean, 2017) Generally, educational organizations should be aware of the necessity of training soft skills for students Besides that, businesses and youths should concentrate on building essential skills and developing potential individuals with highly positive contributions Following that, the lack of soft skills in education is one of the most concerning issues in Vietnam these days In particular, educational organizations in Vietnam have been majoring in theory and hard skills instead of practicing as well as necessary life skills This reality had been considered significantly by national social media For instance, according to Ha (2020), the majority of students in Vietnam are trained carefully in scientific knowledge instead of English, while some students good at English have poor soft skills Consequently, the weakness of education has led to various drawbacks that negatively impact students’ future and citizens’ life Students have fewer career opportunities with a lack of soft skills According to Vietnamese employers and educators, students might be prevented from working in global business because of the lack of soft skills (Tam, 2019) In addition, Tam (2019) also shows that with the good ability in foreign language, algorithm and life skills, only three in forty excellent candidates had been chosen in a job interview at a multinational company in Vietnam However, the lack of soft skills is responsible for the role of the training program and educational organizations, instead of the students' fault totally (Ta Hai Tung, as cited in Tam, 2019) Compared with American education, Tung also recommended that Vietnamese teachers should learn from training methods in this developed country as they give students multiple choices for courses of soft skills In summary, the lack of soft skills impact students’ life significantly and can lead to many consequences in the future of the national workforce Therefore, the importance of soft skills in education as well as Vietnamese workplaces should be given more attention In conclusion, soft skills are very important and necessary for individuals and organizations in various aspects They are not only determinants of business success but also impact the modern workforce globally Besides that, the ignorance of people for soft skills is a significant problem nowadays Especially, in a developing labor market such as Vietnam, training these skills has become more and more essential that requires education, businesses, and people to concern about As a forecast was cited in Deloitte Access Economics (2017), about three-quarter occupations in the next ten years have relied on soft skills, the amount of soft-skill intensive occupations also are predicted to be higher than double of non-soft-skill intensive employment’s rate, therefore, preparation for potential skills is considered seriously 7 References Ackerman, C.E (2020) How to improve emotional intelligence in the workplace Positive Psychology https://positivepsychology.com/emotional-intelligence-workplace/ Baldi, C., Jones, M., Phillips, C., & Waikar, A (2016) The hard truth about soft skills: What recruiters look for in business graduates College Student Journal, 50(3), 422-428 https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1112118 Dean, A (2017) Soft skills needed for the 21st-century workforce Proquest Dissertation Publishing https://www.proquest.com/openview/01b0aeeffe7900aa19e138603efd18fe/1?pqorigsite=gscholar&cbl=18750 Deloitte Access Economics, (2017) Soft skills for business success VOCED plus Sydney http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/429130 Ha, L (2020, March 15) Vietnamese students still lack soft skills Vietname Net Global https://vietnamnet.vn/en/society/students-continue-to-lack-soft-skills-623446.html National Soft Skills Association, (2015, February 13) The soft skills disconnect National Soft Skills Association https://www.nationalsoftskills.org/the-soft-skills-disconnect/ Newman, D., & Fikri, K., (2022, January 19) New startups break record in 2021: Unpacking the Numbers Economic Innovation Group https://eig.org/news/new-start-ups-break-recordin-2021-unpacking-the-numbers Petrie J A C van der Zanden, Eddie Denessen, Antonius H N Cillessen & Paulien C M., (2020) Fostering critical thinking skills in secondary education to prepare students for university: teacher perceptions and practices Post-Compulsory Education, 25(4), 394419 https://doi.org/10.1080/13596748.2020.1846313 Richelle, V.A., & Blair, E., (2019) Impact of time management behaviors on undergraduate engineering students’ performance Sage Journals https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018824506 Tam, D (2019, October 17) Employers, educators lament Vietnamese students’ poor soft skills VNExpress International https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/employers-educatorslament-vietnamese-students-poor-soft-skills-3997338.html Truong, H., Laura, R., (2015) Essential soft skills for successful business graduates in Vietnam Sociology Study, 5(10), 759-763 http://www.davidpublisher.com/Public/uploads/Contribute/56e8c94b1f131.pdf Tem, S., Kuroda, A., & Tang, K (2020) The importance of soft skills development to enhance entrepreneurial capacity International Educational Research, 3(3) https://doi.org/10.30560/ier.v3n3p1 ... interpersonal skills Besides that, soft skills also benefit both individuals and organizations Initially, soft skills bring to individuals various advantages in both the undergraduate period and... who run a company With individuals who are employees and job seekers, good sources of soft skills can raise their confidence in job interviews, open more opportunities and enhance their strength... to be recognized In other words, it is believed that recruiters pay more attention to the information, experiences, and work achievements that were written on the CV than the life skills of candidates