Digital skills gap addressed with 40,000 scholarships in Vietnam

Approximately 40,000 scholarships and three new additional courses will be awarded to Vietnamese students from universities, colleges, and job seekers in 2024 as part of the Google Career Certificates program.

An overview of the event. Photo: NIC

This achievement comes from the collaboration between Google and the National Innovation Center (NIC) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), aiming to fulfill Google's commitment to support digital enhancement for Vietnamese people.

The award ceremony took place on October 28 at the Talent Development Summit: The Grow Together for a Better Future and the closing program for the 2022-2023 period.

The event was part of the Vietnam International Innovation Exhibition 2023 (VIIE 2023), held from October 28 to November 1, by the Ministry of Planning and Investment in collaboration with its partners.

The Google Career Certificates program, launched in 2022, is a non-profit project by Google in Vietnam, sponsored by the NIC.

The program is part of a series of projects and activities by Google to enhance the digital skills and knowledge of the Vietnamese workforce.

After completing each course, learners receive globally recognized professional certifications from Google in various fields, including IT support, data analytics, project management, digital marketing & e-commerce, and user experience design, through the online learning platform www.coursera.org.

The program will offer eight courses, including five courses launched during the 2022-2023 phase, and three new courses: cybersecurity, advanced data analytics, and business intelligence. These courses will be available for free until December 31, 2024.

According to Google's latest economic report, 62% of surveyed participants believed that analytical skills are among the most important, along with 55% emphasizing the significance of digital skills and cybersecurity.

The report also highlighted a serious shortage in the field of cybersecurity, with a current demand for 650,000 experts while only 50,000 professionals can address real-world issues.

Sapna Chadha, Vice President of Google, Asia-Pacific, said: "Vietnam is one of the countries with the fastest-growing digital economy in Southeast Asia, and we believe there are even more promising developments in the future.”

To foster this opportunity, Google is committed to supporting the enhancement of digital skills for the people of Vietnam. Alongside MPI, NIC, and other government partners, they will continue to contribute to the successful implementation of the Google Career Certificates program.

“We believe this collaboration will create significant value for the Vietnamese labor market, providing students and job seekers with opportunities to learn and succeed in the near future," she underlined.

Tran Quoc Phuong, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, also shared that the program has achieved significant milestones in narrowing the digital gap in Vietnam, providing learning and development opportunities for 20,000 individuals.

He added among them, over 5,000 learners have completed at least one course in the program and received professional certifications from Google. 

Within the framework of the event, the event collaborated with VietnamWorks and TopCV to organize a large-scale job fair, connecting graduating students with over 30 companies in the recruitment network. 

This allowed learners to have direct interactions with employers, through useful activities such as career counseling, and mock interviews to help them prepare for the competitive job market. The event attracted the participation of over 1,500 students, both in-person and online.

The Google Career Certificates will continue to contribute to the sustainable development of the information technology sector in Vietnam. 

To date, it has provided learning and development opportunities for 20,000 students, enabling them to access new career opportunities.