By late 2018, Da Nang had been home to 785 accommodation establishments offering a total of 35,615 rooms, an increase of 92 establishments and 6,835 against 2017.

Students are required to make every effort to enhance their professional skills to meet the requirements of future recruiters after their graduation

In addition, 331 travel agents had operated in the city, a rise of 37 compared with the same period of 2017.

With such rapid growth, the demand for staff in the tourism industry has significantly been increasing over recent years.

In attempting to deal with the problem, educational institutes have joined forces with tourism businesses to train staff to meet the growing demand of this industry.

Mr Le Duc Trung, Rector of the Da Nang Tourism Junior College, remarked the gap between training establishments and recruiters has been grown. The main reason is thought to be that training units are responsible for training human resources for all businesses instead of a specific one, so their students have learnt a common standard programme at their schools.

For that reason, over the past two years, his college has made positive changes in its training programmes to meet the requirements of future recruiters’ their students.

In particular, the school has developed output standards for its 7 specific career training programmes.

Besides, the college has also signed cooperation agreements with nearly 50 partners who are resorts, 3 to 5-star hotels and travel agencies in the city in order to send its students for internships.

The college has regularly discussed with these businesses to learn about their actual needs in a bid to make suitable adjustments for its training programmes.

Thanks to the college’s positive changes, in recent years, about between 85% and 90% of college students have found suitable jobs just after graduation.

Dr Truong Sy Quy, Head of the Tourism Faculty of the city’s University of Economics, said many junior colleges and universities in the city have already signed cooperative agreements with accommodation establishments and tourism businesses. Thanks to this, their students have more practice time than before and during the training process.

He also stressed the necessity for students to improve their foreign language levels and other essential soft skills to serve the tourism. He also suggested that tourism businesses should issue even more preferential social welfare policies, and create good working environment for their employees in order to retain them, as well as provide new opportunities for them to enhance their professional skills and get promoted.

As for tourism businesses, the city’s branch of the Viet Nam Travel and Marketing Transports JSC (Vietravel) has been a regular partner of a number of junior colleges and universities based in the city for many years.

Apart from receiving students from these schools for internships, the company has organised numerous short-term training courses to help them improve their professional skills.

Like a wise, the city-based Viet Nam Tourism Joint Stock Company (Vitours) has just opened its Viet Nam Tourism Training Centre to train staff in the tourism industry.

Mr Le Tan Thanh Tung, Deputy General Director of the Vitours, remarked the intention of the opening of the centre is to train high quality human resources meeting the Viet Nam Tourism Occupational Skills Standards (VTOS) for his company, and for the city as a whole.

This year, many universities, junior colleges, and secondary schools across the city will join greater efforts with tourism businesses to help their undergraduates acquire professional skills and real experience through their professional training programmes to meet the requirements of recruiters after their graduation.