Abstract
In Vietnam the large-scale historical change under the influence of globalisation are discernible in the economic reform (Đổi Mới) in the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market oriented one, and in the disjunction between traditional modes of theoretical focus education and the diversity of knowledge and skills required in a globalised labour market. While the traditional view of university education as training for life-long work within one profession is no longer appropriate, the traditional, profession-focused structure at universities in Vietnam has persisted, challenging the skills and knowledge that young graduates typically developed. International non-government organisations (INGOs), by the nature of their work, need employees to mediate between different structures, resources and models, and to develop new models for specific projects. The challenges of working in an INGO may be intensified, especially in the early stages of employment or career, and this raises questions about how universities and employers can assist new graduates to make the transition from formal education to such a workplace. This inductive, qualitative research explores how young Vietnamese university graduates have strategically acquired and developed the attributes required for this intercultural work environment. This paper presents findings from the interviews with young Vietnamese graduates working at INGOs, conducted in two phases, between December 2010–November 2012. The key findings show that the strategies to apply ‘far transfer’ graduate attributes were essential for meeting work requirements. An approach that draws on three bodies of literature - graduate attributes, intercultural competency, and agency, structure and reflexivity - promises to shed light on the graduates’ experiences.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
People’s Aids Coordinating Committee (PACCOM) – http://comingo.gov.vn, accessed 2 March 2016
References
Andrews, J., & Higson, H. (2008). Graduate employability,‘soft skills’ versus ‘hard’business knowledge: A European study. Higher Education in Europe, 33(4), 411–422. https://doi.org/10.1080/03797720802522627.
Altbach, P. G., Reisberg, L., & Rumbley, L. E. (2009). Trends in global higher education: Tracking an academic revolution: A report prepared for the UNESCO 2009 world conference on higher education. Paris: UNESCO.
Atkinson, P., & Coffey, A. (2001). Revisiting the relationship between participant observation and interviewing. In J. F. Gubrium & J. A. Holstein (Eds.), Handbook of interview research (pp. 801–813). Thousand Oaks, USA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Barrie, S. (2006). Understanding what we mean by the generic attributes of graduates. Higher Education, 51(2), 215–241. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-004-6384-7.
Bennett, N., Dunne, E., & Carré, C. (2000). Skills development in higher education and employment. Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1990a). The logic of practice. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Bourdieu, P. (1990b). In other words: Essays towards a reflexive sociology. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Deardorff, D. K. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalisation. Journal of Studies in International Education, 10(3), 241–266. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315306287002.
Dervin, B. (1992). From the mind’s eye of the user: The sense-making qualitative- quantitative methodology. In J. D. Glazier & R. R. Powell (Eds.), Qualitative research in information management (pp. 61–84). Englewood: Libraries Unlimited Englewood.
Eraut, M. (2004). Transfer of knowledge between education and workplace settings. In H. Rainbird, A. Fuller, & A. Munro (Eds.), Workplace learning in context (pp. 201–221). London: Routledge.
Evans, K. (2007). Concepts of bounded agency in education, work, and the personal lives of young adults. International Journal of Psychology, 42(2), 85–93. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207590600991237.
Ghosh, S. (2009). NGOs as political institutions. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 44(5), 475–495. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909609340063.
Gow, K., & McDonald, P. (2000). Attributes required of graduates for the future workplace. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 52(3), 373–396. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820000200126.
Harvey, L. (2005). Embedding and integrating employability. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2005(128), 13–28. https://doi.org/10.1002/ir.160.
Hernández-March, J., Martín del Peso, M., & Leguey, S. (2009). Graduates’ skills and higher education: The employers’ perspective. Tertiary Education and Management, 15(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13583880802699978.
Hoang, L., Tran, L. T., & Pham, H. H. (2018). Vietnam’s government policies and practices in internationalisation of higher education. In T. L. Tran & S. Marginson (Eds.), Internationalisation in Vietnamese higher education (pp. 20–43). Dordrecht: Springer.
Knight, J. (1997). Internalisation of higher education: A conceptual framework. In J. Knight & H. de Wit (Eds.), Internationalisation of higher education in Asia Pacific countries (pp. 5–19). Amsterdam: European Association for International Education.
Le, X. Q. (2013). Fostering learner autonomy in language learning in tertiary education: An intervention study of university students in Hochiminh City, Vietnam. University of Nottingham: Doctoral dissertation.
Marginson, S., & van der Wende, M. (2009). The new global landscape of nations and institutions. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Higher education to, 2030(2), 17–57.
National Assembly of Vietnam. (2012). Vietnam’s law on higher education (p. 2012). Hanoi: National Assembly of Vietnam.
Nguyen, N. (2018). Transnational education in the Vietnamese market: Paradoxes and possibilities. In T. L. Tran & S. Marginson (Eds.), Internationalisation in Vietnamese higher education (pp. 77–97). Dordrecht: Springer.
Nguyen, P. A. (2002). Looking beyond “Bien che”: The considerations of young Vietnamese graduates when seeking employment in the “Đổi Mới” Era. Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 17(2), 221–248. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41057087.
Nguyen, P. M., Terlouw, C., & Pilot, A. (2006). Culturally appropriate pedagogy: The case of group learning in a Confucian heritage culture context. Intercultural Education, 17(1), 1–19. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/14675980500502172.
Nguyen, T. T. H. (2008). Factors influencing the self-study quality for education theory subject of the students at universities of education. Vietnamese Education Review, 182(2), 22–24.
Pham, A. (2018). Employers’ perspectives on Vietnamese returnee students. In T. L. Tran & S. Marginson (Eds.), Internationalisation in Vietnamese higher education (pp. 193–207). Dordrecht: Springer.
Pham, L. (2018). International students’ aspiration to contribute to socioeconomic development in Vietnam. In T. L. Tran & S. Marginson (Eds.), Internationalisation in Vietnamese higher education (pp. 171–192). Dordrecht: Springer.
Pham, H. H., & Tran, L. T. (2013). Developing graduate knowledge and skills for the world of work: The case of the translation curriculum in Vietnam. Language, Society and Culture, 36, 7–17.
Plipat, S. (2006). Developmentizing human rights: how development NGOs interpret and implement a human rights-based approach to development policy. Doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
Ting-Toomey, S., & Kurogi, A. (1998). Facework competence in intercultural conflict: An updated face-negotiation theory. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 22(2), 187–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0147-1767(98)00004-2.
Titma, M., Tuma, N. B., & Roots, A. (2007). Adolescent agency and adult economic success in a transitional society. International Journal of Psychology, 42(2), 102–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207590600991294.
Tran, L., Marginson, S., Do, H., Do, Q., Le, T., Nguyen, N., Vu, T., Pham, T., & Nguyen, H. (2014). Higher education in Vietnam: Flexibility, mobility and practicality in the global knowledge economy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tran, T. L., & Marginson, S. (2018). Internationalisation of Vietnamese higher education: An overview. In T. L. Tran & S. Marginson (Eds.), Internationalisation in Vietnamese higher education (pp. 8–18). Dordrecht: Springer.
VUFO-NGO Resource Centre. (2012). INGO directory. Hanoi: VUFO-NGO Resource Centre. Retrieved from http://www.ngocentre.org.vn/ingodirectory.
World Bank. (2008). Vietnam - higher education and skills for growth. World Bank: Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/06/10988339/vietnam-higher-education-skills-growth.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mai, L.T.Q. (2018). Vietnamese Students’ Transition to International Non-Government Organisations. In: Tran, L., Marginson, S. (eds) Internationalisation in Vietnamese Higher Education . Higher Education Dynamics, vol 51. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78492-2_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78492-2_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78490-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78492-2
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)