Assist students in accessing labor market in industry 4.0

Nội dung text: Assist students in accessing labor market in industry 4.0

1. ASSIST STUDENTS IN ACCESSING LABOR MARKET IN INDUSTRY 4.0 Tran Thi Phuong Hien, PhD. National Economics University Abstract Industry 4.0 (4th Generation Industrial Revolution) is the digital transformation of industrial markets (industrial transformation) with smart manufacturing currently on the forefront. It is also a term appears much in the mass media as well as in our daily life. In Vietnam, in terms of perception, we have accessed rapidly to industry 4.0 with a whole series of discussions and research. This revolution is expected to bring great benefits to human life. However, for the nation based mainly on resource extraction and cheap labor such as Vietnam, its impact at the early stage is evaluated to be negative. Manual labor in textile, assembly industry and traditional agriculture will be affected greatly. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) report in July 2016, 70-75% of simple and manual jobs in these sectors may be replaced, tens of millions of traditional workers may lose their jobs; new energy or materials will greatly affect the exploitation and use of resources. Not being out of the reach of industry 4.0 affection, higher education and students’ access to the labor market have many opportunities and challenges. This article focuses on identifying the effects of industry 4.0 on employment as well as on student labor market access at the side of universities’ support. Keywords: Industry 4.0, student support, employment, access to labor market. 1.1. Basics of Industry 4.0 In 2011, the Association of German Engineers launched a highly integrated project labeled “INDUSTRIE 4.0” to develop and market a wide suite of 572
2. technologies to affect change in Germany’s manufacturing sector and improve its production competitiveness. Then, Klaus Schwab, the CEO of the World Economic Forum, defines the Fourth Industrial Revolution as "A range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies, and industries" (Schwab, 2016). According to Schwab, the combination of internet, automation and human interactions will change the idea of factories, operations and society (Schwab, 2016). Accordingly, industry 4.0 is flourishing from the third revolution, which combines technologies together, blurring the boundaries between physics, digital and biological. It takes place on three main areas: Biotechnology, Digital and Physics. The core elements of industry 4.0 are artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) and big Data. In the field of biotechnology, industry 4.0 focuses on research to create leaps in agriculture, fisheries, medicine, food processing, environmental protection, renewable energy as well as the field of physics with new generation robots, 3D printers, self- driving vehicles, new materials (graphene, skyrmions ) and nanotechnology. Industry 4.0 is taking place in developed countries such as USA, Europe, parts of Asia. Besides the new opportunities, it also poses many challenges for humanity. This revolution has the power to connect billions of people to the web, improve the efficiency of business and organizations, help to regenerate the natural environment through asset management and reduce the damage caused from the previous industrial revolutions (Schwab, 2016). Professor Erik Brynjolfsson, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), this revolution is all about connecting hardware like computers or 3D printers, software components, such as artificial intelligence or cloud computing, and humans at the level of interactions never done before (Erik Brynjolfsson, 2016). In his book “The Second Machine Age” the professor explains that digital devices are more useful and unpredictable that steam or automated machines (Erik Brynjolfsson, 2016). Moreover, while the last three industrial revolutions had a linear technological development, the fourth one is rather exponential, and 573
3. this characteristic relies on the fact that our new society is fully interconnected and information take few hours to spread around the globe. Basically, industry 4.0 is inherited and promoted from the previous three industrial revolutions. In particular, computer interference with new level has transformed every technology faster. Fast changes in physical (e.g., intelligent robots, autonomous drones, driverless cars, 3D printing, and smart sensors), digital (e.g., the internet of things, services, data and even people) and biological (e.g., synthetic biology, individual genetic make-up, and bio-printing) technologies, and generally in the way we work, we learn, and we live, make it a crucial force for economic competitiveness and social development. Industry 4.0 has been affecting different fields of life such as: technology, strategy, workforce and society ( Deloitte Global’s survey, 2017), lean production system ( Tobias Wagner et al., 2017), Procurement and Supply (Andreas H. Glas, 2016), employment (Joseph Flynn, 2017), higher education (Thai et al., 2017) With these extensive effects of 4.0 on every aspect of human life, we can imagine future changes on the 4.0 platform as follows: Based on analyzing all the data about you, artificial intelligence will create many artworks for you to enjoy such as making a movie without actors, making a comedy as your own way; Automatic vending machines will sell anything even a delicious dish can be also automatically made; Bank transactions are automated to the extent that one can borrow based on his history and profile; IOT will replace the farmer while he just stays at home and connect the irrigation system. He can also know the humidity in the soil and in the air to have proper irrigation schedules. He can even control the plow, the reaper without going to work As a consequence, many different professions in the economy will be decreased or disappeared like: chefs, waitresses, credit officers and even farmers. Industry 4.0 brings a vision that people may be less directly interacting with each other, the interaction between people and machines will be more popular. Things will happen regularly through the phone, computer or technical means. 574
4. 1.2. The impact of industry 4.0 on employment and labor market Decades ago, renowned economists John Maynard Keynes and Wassily Leontief foretold a time when artificial intelligence would produce “technological unemployment.” In their view, labor would become less important and workers would be replaced by machines. Science fiction writers often capitalize on plots where robots take over tasks traditionally performed by humans. According to Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo, 2017, the use of industrial robots may reduce employment and wages in the U.S. economy. The authors acknowledge that because relatively few robots currently exist, robots have caused the loss of number of jobs. As the use of robots is anticipated to spread, however, future employment and wages would likely be affected. This study is viewed by the authors as a first step in evaluating how robots influence labor market equilibriums. The research concludes by stating that if the spread of robots continues, there could be sizable future declines in the employment–population ratio. Frey & Osborne (2013) estimated that about 47% of US employment is at risk in the next 10 to 20 years. In the UK, about 35% (Frey & Osborne, 2016) of jobs are at risk and in Finland 36% (Pajarinen & Rouvinen, 2014). In many developing countries the share of employment at high-risk of automatisation issubstantially higher. In India, 69% of employment could be automatised, in China 77% and in Ethiopia 85% (Frey & Osborne, 2016). When the same methodology is applied to OECD members, the average share of employment at risk due to digitalization is about 57%. The differences between countries are explained by the progress that has already been made as well as to what extent jobs depend on face-to-face interaction (Arntz et al., 2016). Based on demonstrated technologies many activities can be automated, but in most cases this does not make the jobs disappear entirely (Autor & Handel, 2013). For example, in OECD countries, Arntz et al. (2016) estimated that in only 9% of jobs could more than 70% of the activities be automated. McKinsey Global Institute estimates show that the activities of only about 1% of jobs could be automated entirely based on demonstrated technologies, while a large share of activities of many more jobs could be automatized. At least 30% of the activities 575
5. of 60% of the jobs are automatable. In the five largest EU economies7 automatable activities represent the equivalent of about 62 million full-time jobs or €1.75 trillion in annual wages. Automation will expose jobs such as office and administrative support as well as transportation and logistics (Frey & Osborne, 2016). In turn, there are also cognitive non-routine activities that can be automated. For example, diagnosis of chronic disease and cancer treatments have been partially automated using data analytics on vast numbers of medical records for benchmarking and recognition of patterns (Cohn, 2013). There remain, nevertheless, plenty of activities that are very difficult to automate. In these activities originality and social skills play an important role (management, business, arts, media, education, healthcare, etc.) Owing to education levels, existing disadvantages of some workers are likely to be reinforced through automation. More specifically, workers with a lower level of education have the highest chance of seeing their activities being automated. OECD (2016) indicates that about 40% of lower educated workers face a high risk that their job will be automated, while only 5% of workers with a tertiary degree face the same risk (Berger & Frey, 2016; Arntz, Gregory & Zierahn, 2016). During the transition to industry 4.0, the change in production structure will surely have consequences. With regard to the working and professional world, work will become more challenging and have more informal qualification requirements such as the ability to act independently, self - organizing, abstract thinking - skills (Forschungsunion & acatech 2013). There will particularly be less need for simple, repetitive tasks and special knowledge applied. Start - up companies utilizing the potentials digitization are able to manufacture more flexible and individualized products, will form and occupy new market. They in particular require their specialists to hold special professional skills, which must be accompanied by expertise in dealing with digital media and networks, as well as distinctive soft skills in communication and especially in teamwork. Expertise in problem solving, which is coordinated within the processes among the team but also implemented independently, is vital for the companies. New skills or activities which would result in new job descriptions, are not expected. In fact, 576
6. the previous occupations are sufficiently established. However, it is emphasized require even greater and virtually end-to-end IT skills are required. Although the requirements placed on employees are increasing, particularly in the development phase of new processes and products, this can only result in a short-term shift towards requiring academic degrees. This shift would settle down again during the implementation phase since more people with training qualifications would then be in demand again. In Vietnam, industry 4.0 will cause labor market changes in the structure of labor, labor levels and the requirements of different skills. In particular, workers have to adapt to new jobs and avoid being eliminated. In addition, the industrial revolution 4.0 also affects the training and retraining sector. Vietnam will gradually change traditional training methods to flexible ones, focusing on skills training, retraining and short-term training associated with lifelong learning. The training should be based on the technology platform. (Le Quan, 2018, Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs). The 2017 report of the ILO "ASEAN in transformation: How technology is changing jobs” indicates most of the work made in the field of production, especially textiles, trousers clothing and footwear and electronics and equipment industry electricity will be affected by industry 4.0. Although high technology not fully penetrated the industry, there are also signs that the appearance of the high technology in some industries. Industry 4.0 could create the risk of breaking the labor market in the world and in Vietnam. When automation replaces humans, labor may be redundant while safe jobs with higher incomes may increase. The low-level labor must constantly improve to upgrade their skills and be more productive even better than the automatic production lines. Students – high level labors must also constantly learn, improve and creative. In industry 4.0, repeated universal jobs tend to be replaced entirely by machines while the demand for highly skilled labor with creative thinking, performing complicated tasks and mastering machines tends to be increased. This will be job opportunities for students in the future. 577
7. Thus, for developing countries such as Vietnam, industry 4.0 poses many challenges: lagging behind, losing low cost advantage, many industrial fields are automatically, requirements for the labor skill will be higher. The technology and knowledge gap will be greater leading to a deeper social division. Many new jobs are born with new working method. If students do not improve their skills to adapt quickly to these changes, they will be excluded from the labor market. The following are some of the typical effects of industry 4.0 on employment and the access to the labor market: ắ Setting new requirements for students The basic feature of industry 4.0 is the integration of technology, digital and biotechnology to address the social and economic issues and the combination of virtual and real systems through internet connection. It will also set new requirements on knowledge, skills and the mind of the students. These knowledge and skill are divided into 3 groups: - The knowledge and skills related to cognitive, system thinking, critical thinking, adaptive skills, creative thinking. - Physical skills: language skills, digital skills, communication skills. - Social skills: communication, behavior, relationships, teamwork. Hecklau et al., 2016 said it is possible to aggregate and categorize competencies into four main groups – Technical, Methodological, Social and Personal competencies. Requirements for the qualifications and skills of employees will be higher than at present, because the companies will use new technologies and smart media. In particular, the application of skills, knowledge and the mind to innovate is more important than previous knowledge and skills. According to the 2017 report of ILO “Asean in transformation - how technology is changing jobs and enterprises”, there will be most important skills related to technical, teamwork and communications, innovation, creativity knowledge. So it requires students to be matured in their professional, comprehensive skills and positive 578
8. working attitude. Among the requirements, foreign language skill and the ability to apply scientific and technological advances into practice are skills need to be cultivated most. These are both an opportunity and a challenge for the generation of 4.0 Vietnamese students. Because Vietnam has been considering as a country with a strong foreign language learning movement and also be a developing country have strong scientific and technological applications despite the fact Vietnamese are weak in foreign languages and the ability to apply technology in general. ắ Making a strong change in the structure of labor and labor market According to the study by Wolter et al. (2015), industry 4.0 is neither a “job producer” nor an “employment destroyer”. The scenarios estimate an overall loss of 60,000 jobs through digitalization. In different occupational and economic sectors 490,000 jobs will be lost, while in other sectors and occupations 430,000 jobs will be newly created until 2025. The already visible structural change favoring employment in services will even be accelerated through industry 4.0. Occupations in areas such as information technology or teaching relying on more creative skills are more likely to become more important, whereas jobs in manufacturing (e.g. machine- and facility-controlling and maintenance of machinery) or service administration implying a high level of non-manual routine tasks are more likely to shrink. Due to the demographic development and changing educational attitudes the supply of workers with medium skills will probably decrease. Vogler-Ludwig et al. (2016) suggest that an “Economy 4.0” may probably not cause job destruction on a large scale. They expect additional jobs particularly in industries producing digital technologies and digital services (e.g. mechanical and electrical engineering) and corresponding occupations. Other areas in which job creation may take place are research and development, teaching and business consulting. Losses are most likely in sectors such as transport, logistics, and security. Automation systems will gradually replace manual labor in many areas. The shift from using people to machines will increase the gap between profitability and 579
9. labor force. This will affect the income of simple labor. When automation replaces manual labor, millions of workers can be unemployed, especially those working in insurance, real estate brokerage, financial consulting and transportation. The high proportion of high-quality labor is rising, resulting in a more and more isolated job market, or creating new employment needs than ever before. Owing to education levels, existing disadvantages of some workers are likely to be reinforced through automation. More specifically, workers with a lower level of education have the highest chance of seeing their activities being automated. OECD (2016) indicates that about 40% of lower educated workers face a high risk that their job will be automated, while only 5% of workers with a tertiary degree face the same risk (Berger&Frey, 2016; Arntz,Gregory&Zierahn, 2016). In terms of gender, age and education, less well educated workers could be particularly exposed to automation, emphasizing the importance of increased investment in lifelong learning and retraining. More highly educated workers will typically have greater potential for adaptability to technological changes, as well as to design and supervise AI-based systems. Differences are less marked by age group, although some older workers could find it relatively harder to adapt and retrain than the younger. This may apply particularly to less well- educated men as we move into our third wave of autonomous automation in areas like driverless cars and other manual labor that has a relatively high proportion of male workers at present. But female workers could be relatively harder hit in early waves of automation that apply, for example, to clerical roles. (PWC report, 2018, “What jobs first at risk from automation”). A study by Carl Fery and Michael Osborne (2013) predicts about 47 percent of jobs in the United States are at risk of being automated in the next two decades. Accordingly, the most automated professions are telemarketers, tax payers, customer care service Some of the less automated professions are psychological counselors, social staffs 580
10. According to the Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs - Le Quan, the 4.0 revolution will cause labor market changes in the structure of labor, the structure of resources, the structure of labor levels, the requirements of different skills. Industry 4.0 directly and indirectly affects occupations in the economy (agriculture, industry and services), as well as groups of workers. Revolution 4.0 can also take away many of the current jobs in Vietnam. Employment in the energy, manufacturing, service and agricultural sectors will fluctuate sharply during the industry 4.0. Electronics and textiles, which are the strengths of Vietnam and creating jobs in the past few decades, may be at risk of job reduction. Advances in automation and digitization that reduce production costs can increase the likelihood that electronics and textiles will return to developed countries to be closer to the market. The prospect of job loss can also occur in the agricultural sector because most of the agricultural workers in our country are not still fully mechanized production (VASS, 2017). ắ Changing the conception of qualifications and occupation in society In industry 4.0 era, there will be no longer so important to one’s qualification awarded, origin or relationship. The big concern will be real knowledge, professional level or skill of the individual. And this is an opportunity for all. People who have real ability, good qualifications, creativity and creating values for the society will be successful. In 2017 and beyond, organizations should experiment and implement cognitive tools, focus heavily on retraining people to use these tools, and rethink the role of people as more and more work becomes automated (Angus Knowles-Cutler and Harvey Lewis, 2017). The shift from full-time employees to an augmented workforce (augmented by both technology and crowds) is one of the more challenging of the human capital trends. It upends the familiar concepts of what a job is (along with all the implications for careers), what work really means, how the workforce is trained and selected, and how the workplace is designed. It stretches conventional notions of what types of work can be done by people and by machines, and it redefines the human workforce segments that are involved (Jeff Schwartz, 2017). The rapid advances in machine 581
11. intelligence have been well-documented. Robots and cognitive technologies are making steady advances, particularly in jobs and tasks that follow set, standardized rules and logic. We should focus on defining the difference between essential human skills, such as creative and ethical thinking, and nonessential tasks, which can be managed by machines. This requires reframing careers, and designing new ways of working and new ways of learning - both in organizations and individuals. According to Mr Truong Quoc Phong - Network Engineer at FPT Information System, there has a shift in qualification in industry 4.0, it is now not a first element. The qualification is the evidence for one's profiles, but practical knowledge and skills can help candidates convince recruiters. For example at Gameloft, recruiters will give priority to whom have had the game products. This means students should choose the best environment for practical rather than theory so that they can have more practical skills. One could not expect the premieres give the construction and experience in working for the following in 4.0 (Trung Thanh et al., 2017) ắ Seeking jobs in a more complex environment One of the new rules for the digital age is to expand our vision of the workforce; think about jobs in the context of tasks that can be automated (or outsourced) and the new role of human skills; and focus even more heavily on the customer experience, employee experience, and employment value proposition for people. Organizations that automate manufacturing plants, for example, and that do not clearly give people opportunities for reskilling and new positions, may see their brand suffer, and to some extent may also feel pressure from the social and political environment. Deuse, J. et al., 2015, the works of the future are envisioned to be “intelligently” automated works, in which machines, products, tools, workers and even customers are interconnected to cyber physical production systems. These connected sub-systems work together, exchanging information and data and 582
12. striving for maximum value for each process - step along the value creation chain. Current top drivers of change are cloud technology, big data processing, the internet of things (embedded systems, sensors, etc.), sharing technology (crowd sourcing, crowd working etc.), intelligent automation of tasks (robotics, artificial intelligence, etc.) and advanced manufacturing (“industry 4.0”, 3D printing, etc.). For workers this developments lead to an increasing work complexity, as for example the amount of information, which has to be considered in the production process steadily increases. This in turn leads to higher work complexity and an increasing demand for information for the workforce, which can be met by organizational development measures, continuous professional worker training and the assistance of information and communication technology. When employers are interested in creativity, practical ability and knowledge instead of qualification of the individual as mentioned above, then students - trained people - will have to compete with others who may not have trained formally but having inborn ability or having a deep understanding of a certain field. If education in general and higher education in particular do not change timely in industry 4.0 then the generation of workers lacking skills and knowledge of industry 4.0 can cause their access to the labor market and employment opportunities limited. Bui Trung Ha, 2017 said industry 4.0 characterized by the speed and convergence of high-tech and innovative industries will dramatically reshape the labor market. Especially in the future, with the convergence of creative industries requires not only professional and creative skills, but also multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary skills. In that complex context, human resource in Vietnam requires adjustments. Thus, the digitalization of the economy, or industry 4.0, as some experts have labeled it, will have severe consequences for job creation/destruction. Students - potential employees need to grasp the changes from industry 4.0 to be more proactive in their access to the labor market as well as their future careers. 583
13. Besides, effective support from universities is an important catalyst and be a motivator. 1.3. Assist students in accessing the labor market in the industry 4.0 1.3.1. Challenges facing students on entering the labor market According to Will Bartlett, 2016 there are two main factors challenge students on entering the labor market which are: ắ Lack of prior work experience The limited possibilities that students have to engage in internships or relevant work experience during their studies may also be obstacles to employment. Employers frequently complain about the skills of students, emphasizing their lack of work experience, practical knowledge and even lack of motivation to find a job in certain cases. An employer survey shows that 52% of employers attach “a lot” or “very much” importance to having previous work experience when making a decision to recruit a new graduate. Having some work experience is therefore important for students. Connecting with the industry 4.0 affections as mentioned above, lack of prior work experience can give the problem for students accessing the labor market. ắ Lack of assistance in accessing a job In seeking work in a competitive market, students require good information, since otherwise the labor market cannot function efficiently. Students face a lack of adequate information about career opportunities, and social networks step in to fill the gap. This leads to an unbalanced playing field with the best-connected graduates able to access the best jobs. A research of Will Bartlet shows the family is the main source of assistance in finding a job, closely followed by friends. This highlights the importance of personal connections, and to a certain extent, nepotism, in the job search process. In contrast, assistance from graduates’ professors or careers services at universities is extremely low (Will Bartlet, 2016). Some universities have a career center that aims to provide 584
14. information to students about suitable careers and internships. Some provide training in writing a CV, organize trial interviews with companies. However, most universities fail to monitor the effectiveness of their career centers, or identify which of their activities are most effective in helping students find a job. This suggests that the activities of careers centers should be upgraded and monitored so that universities can become more aware of their successes and failures in order to better assist their students find a job upon graduation. It is clear that lacking the universities support to students in accessing the labor market can cause to unemployment. The problem becomes more severe in industry 4.0. Because students not only face the usual challenge (the lack of universities support, their experience ) but also the complex environment of industry 4.0 with changing in the conception of qualifications and occupation, a strong change in the structure of labor and the labor market and new requirements for applying jobs. In Vietnam, there are very rare studies on students career support from the universities currently. To have some reviews on the problem, we use an online search with keywords "student career support". The result shows almost universities has the center with different names like “student service center”, “student support center” or “student counseling center” These centers focus much on students’ daily life like accommodation, travel, etc. The function of student career support was concerned but mostly job connections. The problem is that these connections are often sought by businesses and almost centers have not actively connected jobs for students. Other career support for students such as soft skills learning, counseling and career orientation is overlooked (the author synthesized from regulations on functions and duties of these centers which are posted and from my own observation). In addition, not many Vietnam universities have prepared for the training of students in industry 4.0 currently. The origin of industry 4.0 is to enhance artificial intelligence in life, in which humans play an important role in creating and exploiting this environment. To do this, the university needs to prepare the 585
15. training program based on listening, reviewing for appropriate adjustments. It is the integration into the fields related to artificial intelligence, speeding up internet applications, equipped with intelligent learning environment and research thereby enabling students to learn and work in a highly automated environment, avoiding confusion in a less labor environment. In fact, there are very few schools having conditions to meet these for at least next five years in Vietnam. Currently, the programs content of Vietnam universities are still unchanged. Teaching is almost by projector, video, document sharing on the network. Poor budget is also one of the reasons why science and technology applications have not developed in the university. To gain objective insights from insiders, Vietnamese students who have been accessing the labor market in industry 4.0, we have conducted random interviews with 10 National Economics university students (1 for the first year, 2 for the second year, 3 for the third year and 4 for the fourth year). The question is around the viewpoint of ones’ ability to access the labor market and their comment of the university's support in the context of industry 4.0. The results are as follows: - First year students: We find the environment of university is different from that of high school .We are worried about the future of graduation. What should we do and improve to be able to get a job. - Second year students: I myself feel lack of confidence and was embarrassed in communication. We do not see the role of specialized subjects in our career orientation. My knowledge of information technology is very limited, and I find the given subjects do not help us much to improve this skill. - Third year student: In addition to specialization, we must learn extra things to meet the labor market need of industry 4.0 after graduating. Many IT companies offer many criteria included computer skills, foreign languages and mathematical thinking. Meanwhile students are not taught much in mathematics. - Fourth-year students: The application and updating of knowledge and effectiveness in student learning methods as well as instructor methods are now 586
16. exposed to a number of issues: many lecturers use projectors but less practical content, evaluating students unfair, less motivation for students to self-study, students are passive in the class. - Fourth year students (on-the-job training): We are equipped with basic and specialized knowledge in the university. After graduation, the actual job requires students to continue to train themselves. Students must cultivate other skills to meet the requirements of the recruiter (foreign language, computer science). As a result, we can see students are very worry about their future careers. This might be not only the thinking of National Economics University students but also the common voice of Vietnamese students. How do they take the initiative in learning, be more proactive in preparing the necessary resources to access the labor market and get jobs in the future? To answer this question is not only the effort of the students themselves but also the support from the universities. 1.3.2. Assist students in accessing the labor market in the industry 4.0 – From the universities side In order to have the ability to access to the labor market and obtain employment opportunities, it is the efforts of the student themself and the support from the universities. Lacking of either, the labor market access and employment opportunities of students will be more difficult, especially in the era of industry 4.0 because technical and information technology skill tends to be dominant in this era. On the side of the students, they should actively participate in the community of human resources. Instead of being passive and waiting, they should actively connect and participate in these personnel networks. In addition, students should early find and access the employment website. Accessing and subscribing to useful career information pages can help students quickly access new career trends in the marketplace. Also, attending career events in the university is a 587
17. good way to help them have useful information quickly. Improving in-depth knowledge as well as soft skills is always important. On the side of universities, the university’s quality is not only measured by the quality of training, facilities, materials but also by the percentage of graduates earning jobs and the university support to students in accessing the labor market. To do this, the university needs to address the following issues: ắ About the lecturers: The task of universities in the coming period is to train information technology experts fully, actively equip students with the digital knowledge and related skills to meet the social needs of industry 4.0. Teachers themselves need to master their information technology related to their field of teaching. ắ About teaching activities: Teachers need to create more appropriate and democratic social contexts for students so that they can debate real issues surrounding their lives. Right from the university, students must be assisted in accumulating knowledge about information technology, timely updating and being able to apply the latest technological advances of the world. It is also essential to equip students with foreign language and soft skills. Most traditional classes now have a disadvantage of high costs, limited space, etc. In the future, these can be replaced by online classes, virtual classrooms and quality control can be made by support tools such as cyberspace connection. Simpler, lecturers can assign homework to groups of students and ask them apply information technology, as well as posting for the pre-class so that the quality of the presentation is guaranteed. ắ About the curriculum: Most of the current curriculum is not flexible, the content is not suitable with the demand and the labor market trend in industry 4.0. Universities are under pressure when training programs have to be met highly specialization in a certain field and interdisciplinary like information technology, digital, networking. In addition, the curriculum is also under pressure of lacking indispensable skills such as system thinking, ability to synthesize, ability to link between real and virtual worlds, creativity, teamwork skills, 588
18. interdisciplinary collaboration capacity. Therefore, the curriculum should be designed more diverse, more specific and meet the needs of learners better. ắ About learning environment: The learning environment is very important for cognitive processes so the ability to design and layout work spaces for students can lead to a new thinking. The learning space needs to be more diversified. Instead of a classroom with walls and tables, traditional labs or simulation rooms, learners can experience cyberspace, interact in real conditions through software and network. The campus should also be arranged open so that students can use the space for meeting, discussing and communicating. Students' leisure space also needs to be concerned to facilitate communication and knowledge sharing. Learning space plays an important role in creating and stimulating, whereas creativity is an important basis for accessing and developing knowledge in the 4.0 era. ắ About training methods: Training methods should be changed with the strong application of information technology, digital technology and network. Online training, virtual training, simulation, digitizing lectures will be the coming training trend. This requires universities to have a good preparation of teaching resources especially lecturers, building learning spaces, teaching and learning equipment. To support students in accessing the labor market, the university needs to organize annual events like exploring knowledge of information technology. From these activities, lecturers and students can have knowledge of information technology from enterprises’ sharing. This is a great way to increase the quality of teaching and learning, and also deepen the relationship between universities and businesses. Universities also need to facilitate to 3rd and 4th year students practice at enterprises. So that students can get acquainted with the new work and technology. The signing of student exchange agreements with foreign countries should be replicated as well. ắ About training support activities: The learning materials system as well as the library should not only be considered as a specific location. Instead of that, they should be exploited everywhere with simple operation. Computer systems should be equipped enough to assist students in accessing online information. For 589
19. the best training support, the university needs to establish and maintain an online information system to support students timely. ắ Strengthening the links with businesses and international universities: universities with typical technique should strengthen these links to build laboratories. These labs are not only a place for students to practice but also an in-depth research center at the enterprise's request to create products and services in order. With universities less technology-specific, strengthening this cooperation is also necessary to accelerate the acquisition of new knowledge of industry 4.0. It depends on the specific capabilities and conditions that they can select the appropriate content and form of link. Research collaboration will provide universities with significant funding to increase science and technology resources and improve the quality of training. Setting up and/or strengthening education center 4.0 and/or student support center: Each university should have a 4.0 education center and/or a student support center. In particular, the 4.0 education center is prepared to take the initiative in responding to challenges and catch up the opportunities from industry 4.0. The student support center is designed to provide timely support to students in their studies and life, as well as providing advice and especially to connect students to employers and labor market. At present, many universities are highly concerned in student support and even have student support center but their size and feature are not matched and be multiple integrated mutually. These centers haven’t helped students much in connecting and finding jobs. Besides, some universities haven’t got the so called “Student support center”. For example, the National Economics University has a Department of Political Affairs and Student Management but this unit does not support students much, especially in supporting to access job opportunities. Other departments have specialized efforts to support students with job opportunities, but it is still very fragmented and ineffective. So the solution that student support centers must play a key role not only in supporting students’ daily problem and job connection but also connecting students actively to employers and giving other career support such as soft skills learning, counseling and career orientation. 590
20. ắ Forming a new university model - business university: Promote the partnership between the university and enterprises to change from "teaching what available" to "teaching what the market needs”, or even "teaching what the market will need”. In fact, this solution has been mentioned and concerned but so far few universities perform. On the opposite side, there are businesses set up a professional training in university which is closely linked between theory and practice and have a commitment for job. However, this model has not really been implemented widely. 1.4. Recommendations Although we conducted interviews with a very small group of NEU students, the evidence from the universities’ role and situation of supporting students to the labor market mentioned above indicated that higher education has a key role in helping students access to the labor market better. And students need to have support from the university for the job opportunity better. The goal of education is to train qualified labor to meet the development requirements of the nation, especially in the era of industry 4.0. To do this, the State should continue to improve the law system to create a better environment for human resource development and encouraging the development of high quality human resources. The special policies for leading scientists must be concerned also. And the State should have policies to support the establishment and development of innovative and startup nursery in universities. These nurseries will be closely linked to universities and businesses using high quality human resources. They could become the beginning of ideas, creativity, and give the research results in used. Conclusion To support and connect students to the labor market, universities need to promote the key linkages between school - managers – entrepreneurs so that innovation, creativity and productivity in the knowledge society could be enabled. In order to adapt to the changes of industry 4.0, teaching and learning activities need to be carried out at all times and in all places so that learners could be personalize and 591
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