Example of a small research report - Investment of National economic university students for extra education

AcknowledgementWe take this opportunity to thank all of the individuals who helped us prepare

this report. We want to express appreciation to the direct instructor, Mrs. Nguyen Thanh

Thuy whose insightful comments and suggestions were valuable to us during the ERP

writing course.

We would also like to thank all the students in Advanced Program and other

faculties in National Economic University, who enthusiastically participated in the

survey and supported us in collecting data.

Youth Group

Pham Vu Diem Hang

Dao Mai Hoa

Bui Thi Bich Ngoc

Nguyen The Duc

Writing report- Youth group Page 1

AbstractVarious issues related to university students have been studied based on

characteristics of their living conditions and career orientations including how they live,

study, entertain or how what they expect from their career, etc. This study investigated

the extent to which students from all the faculties in National Economic University will

be studied based on the preparation for future jobs that they exhibited in their

perceptions and the activities they take. The results indicated that, on the aspect of

perception, most the students know the essence or significance of prepare for their jobs

in future, however, on the aspect of action, there are some problems in directions and

effectiveness. From the findings, some recommendations for students to better prepare

for their career are given.


Table of Contents

Acknowledgement.......................................................................................................................................1

Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................2

I. Introduction.........................................................................................................................................4

1. Background.....................................................................................................................................4

2. Purpose, research question and key term.........................................................................................4

3. Scope, method and contents............................................................................................................5

4. Literature review..............................................................................................................................5

5. Methodology....................................................................................................................................7

5.1 Collecting data.........................................................................................................................7

II. Findings...............................................................................................................................................8

1. NEU students’ standpoints towards the tangible credits..................................................................8

1.1 NEU students’ perception of bachelor degree...............................................................................8

1.2 NEU students’ awareness of holding extra certificates................................................................10

2.1. NEU students’ perception of developing soft skills....................................................................14

III. Discussion and Conclusion............................................................................................................21


I. Introduction

1. Background

Due to the development and international Integration of Vietnam economy, the

demand for labor, especially high quality, sharply increases. Millions of students who

are in universities and colleges are Society’s human resources in the future. However,

there is a fact that most graduated students, even the ones with excellent results in

universities face a lot of difficulty in finding appropriate jobs. On the other side,

recruiters complain that most candidates do not satisfy their requirements. The reason

given is that the candidates do not have sufficient working skills and adequate job

descriptions acknowledgement. The Government, therefore, has been investing and

caring tertiary education system to achieve the goal that the competence of graduates

meets the practical needs of society. In addition, many students begin to realize the

significance of preparing for their jobs. They are more proactive to improve their

knowledge and skills to satisfy the recruiters’ increasing demand of labor and to succeed

in career.

A variety of researches about the topic students and jobs have been carried out.

They have tended to focus on the recruiters’ satisfaction with candidates as well as

students’ expectations for jobs. In addition, most researches’ subject is students in

general, that means from all industries or majors. It remains unclear about how the

students in Economic major actually do to prepare themselves for working in future.

Economic Major has specific characteristics because economy ceaselessly changes and

requires flexibility, creativeness and unlimited knowledge. Each year, more than 60000

bachelors are added to the labor force. The need for further and more intensive research

on this subject is increasing.

2. Purpose, research question and key term

The report aims at describing and analyzing the perception and actions of

students toward the issue of preparing for future jobs. Therefore, this will help answering

two research questions, which are: “How do NEU students perceive and commit to obtain the


tangible credits for their future career?” and “How do NEU students perceive and commit

to obtain intangible credits for their future career?”

The preparations are defined in terms of the two fields. The first is tangible

qualifications include bachelor degree and other extra certificates. The second is

knowledge and supportive skills that are tangibles. Knowledge term here includes both

theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. The term practical knowledge is

understandings about the actual situations of the major or industries, about the society

and economy. Supportive skills include soft skills, such as presentation, persuading;

working skills includes leadership, time management and searching information; and

computing skills like using office software.

3. Scope, method and contents

Because of limited time and ability, we conducted the survey on a sample of 310

students from all the faculties in National Economic University and interviewed some

recruiters. After collecting and processing data, we obtained some findings that will be

presented in the main parts of the paper and then give some recommendations.

4. Literature review

Due to the importance of students as the future labor supply for society,

numerous researches have been conducted to study many aspects such as the

expectations for career of students and the demands of recruiters, the applications of

knowledge educated in schools into practice, etc.

Many researches addressed the problems of students’ preparation and planning

before graduating universities. A report released by Ministry of Education and Training

described the wide gap between the abilities of students and the requirements of

employers, as a result it leaded to nearly 40% of students were unable to find suitable

jobs right after graduating universities. An independent research by L&A Company was

also concerned about 20% of students working in jobs that they were previously not

trained.


More specifically, Nhan Viet consulting company has conducted annual survey

about students and career, in which the students evaluate themselves. The results show

that more than 45% are not good at English, 20% students are not good at using

Microsoft Word. The percentage of students who are not good at Excel and PowerPoint

are respectively 39.8% and 31.6%. The soft skills include 10 skills: Team working,

problem solving, Communication, presenting, time management, analysis, Creativity,

Leadership, making decision, Negotiating and others. Majority of students think that

they are quite good and good at these skills. Besides, 94% and 89.4% think that foreign

languages and soft skills are necessary to have good jobs. Students evaluate they are the

most necessary, compared with computing skills, grades, health, relationships,

appearance. Another finding is the most expected companies are multinationals and

foreign firms. The State-owned enterprises and offices are least expected.

Many other studies and articles on websites and Magazines share the opinion

that many graduates lack necessary skills, socio-economic knowledge. Statistics from

indicated that majority of students who have graduated do not have sufficient

competence of working and recruiters have to retrain their new employees.

In general, with different methods and results, these researches show common

problems and raise an issue that students need to prepare or “equip” themselves the

necessary things for future.

Besides the contributions, these researches have some drawbacks. One of them is

that they tend to approach students in general terms. That means students in all majors

are not classified and studied as a whole, whereas, each major has its specific

characteristics. Especially Economic major, it highly appreciate flexibility to response

the ceaseless movements in the market. Moreover, Vietnam economy is in stage of

development and international integration. In that situations, the quality of economic

bachelors are more and more cared.


5. Methodology

5.1 Collecting data:

The research use two sources of data that are primary data and secondary data

5.1.1 Primary data:

We collected primary data by conducting a survey. The population of the survey

is the entire students from all faculties in National Economic University. Because of

limited ability of an only four-member group as well as short time, we cannot collect

data of all students. Therefore, we take a random sample of 310 students. The simple

random sampling method ensures that all individuals in the population have the equal

possibility of being studied. The way of conducting the simple random sample is as

following. All the email lists, Yahoo lists of students and Classroom Addressees of all

classes are collected from Politic Issues & Students Management Department and from

Faculty Offices. Questionnaires were delivered to each chosen student directly in hard

copies or through internet in soft copies.

The questionnaire content is composed of three parts. The first part is questions

for classification in terms of faculty, number of intake. Then the second part questions

the students’ perceptions toward qualifications, knowledge and skills. The remaining

questions ask for the activities that students are involved in, their level of concerns and

efforts. The soft version was edited on Google Spreadsheet and the link was sent to

students via Email. Our questionnaire can be found in APPENDIX 1.

In addition to the questionnaire, some direct interviews with recruiters were

carried out. The interview questions target requirements that they search and expect in

candidates.

5.1.2 Secondary data:

The previous researches related to this topic are reviewed. Our information

resources are researches in NEU library, Statistics from Politic Issues and Students

Management Department. Besides, Internet is the most helpful and effective source. We


use some information from the Ministry of Education and Training and some

Academies.

Many articles about students and career are used as references for this report.

5.2 Processing Data:

We use Microsoft Excel and SPSS to process data. The results are presented in

percentage and illustrated by charts. The results are classifications by major, number of

Intake and levels of concern and involvement in activities.

II. Findings

1. NEU students’ standpoints towards the tangible credits

1.1 NEU students’ perception of bachelor degree

The survey results indicate a considerable importance of bachelor degree to the

majority of respondents. It seems that holding a good or an excellent undergraduate

degree offers students a plenty of opportunities. Firstly, it helps to construct favorable

curriculum vitae, which is the first step in having a good job. Furthermore, in order to

win scholarship to prestigious international universities, or meet requirements to study at

a higher level, students need to get an impressive learning result.


Graph 1.1

However, there are differences in their perceptions of bachelor degree’s role. For

62% of NEU students, bachelor degrees can adequately reflect students’ knowledge and

ability, therefore become a comprehensive evaluation of effort as well as talent of

students. On the other hand, the remainders disapprove of the evaluation system in

university so that they raise some doubts on the adequate reflection of degree on

students’ knowledge and ability. These students, in fact, try their best to get high marks

since it is essential for their future jobs but personally, they do not believe in what is

written in the paper called “bachelor degree”.


Graph 1.2

In general, a vast number of NEU students highly appreciate bachelor degree and

strive to obtain a good result in learning. It is due to the fact that holding a good

bachelor degree is a prerequisite for having a good job in the future, although to some

extent it does not entirely reflect knowledge of students.

1.2 NEU students’ awareness of holding extra certificates

The pie chart below is summary of the survey conducted with the purpose of

researching the awareness of NEU students of holding extra certificates. Nearly 80% of

responders realize the special importance of extra certificates, such as foreign languages,

computing, accounting, stock market… The remainders of more than 60 students, which

account for 20% of the whole, do not regard these certificates as strictly necessary

though they bring additional advantages. Notably, there is no one considering extra

certificates as entirely unnecessary. Therefore, we may come to conclusion that NEU

students are well aware of gaining more knowledge to supplement what they has learnt

in university.


Graph 1.3

However, students in different years of study, such as first year, second year, and

final year… or in different faculties, like economics, accounting, and banking…have

different orders of priority in choosing what to study. For a more extensive research, it is

crucial to approach the problem from different standpoints.

1.2.1 Standpoints of NEU students in term of years of study

When researching the real situation of NEU students in studying extra subjects,

the statistical data shows an increase in concern of students about having extra

certificates from first year students to final year students. Thirty percent of the first year

students do not study any subject except what are in their university curriculum. This

number dramatically reduces to 20%; 14% and 1% when the students are in their


second, third and final year, respectively. In contrast, the number of students studying

foreign languages as their extra learning rises consistently from first year to forth year

students. All students perceive holding a foreign languages certificate, particularly

English certificates, such as TOEFL, IELTS or TOEIC as imperative. Because of that,

studying foreign language accounts for the highest percentage in choices of both senior

and junior in NEU. The number of first year students choosing to study computing is 3%

less than second year students. Both third year and forth year students have the same

percentage of studying computing which is 10%. Since other certificates such as

accounting, banking or auditing are strictly academic, only final year students choose to

study them though at a small percentage of 13%.

Graph 1.4

To summary, first year students pay less attention to study extra subjects and

final year ones seem most concern about getting extra certificate. The levels of concern

increase as the years of study increase.


1.2.2 Standpoints of NEU students in term of faculties

In term of major, we divide the faculties into three main ones, which are

Auditing-Accounting, Banking-Finance and the faculties of economics, such as

investment, international business, and insurance. The chart shows that students in

faculties of economics spend the least time on studying foreign languages compare to

the two other faculties. On the other hand, they study computing much more than others

do. It is likely that students in Banking-finance faculty consider learning foreign

languages as crucial due to the fact that 80% of them are striving to get good English

certificates like TOEFL or IELTS.

Students in Banking-finance seem not pay much attention in having other

certificates while for who in Auditing-Accounting it is essential. It is due to the

requirement that accountants need to have accounting certificate. For other students

whose majors may not bring them favorable jobs in the future, for example:

environmental economics and economics, they tend to invest time and effort in getting

an extra academic certificate like accounting or auditing. That is the reason why there

are 8% of these students study in those fields. In contrast, working in banking and

finance sectors seems to be attractive so that students in this faculty do not keen on

holding extra academic certificate.


Graph 1.5

1.3 The importance of each certificate

Both chart 1.4 and 1.5 indicate that holding foreign languages certificates is

crucial for NEU students. Students in all years of study and in all faculties spend most of

their time and effort for studying foreign languages. Notably, on average, the time and

effort they spend for computing, which is the second most important certificate, are 7

times less than for foreign languages. In addition, NEU students seem not pay attention

to getting economics certificate.

2. NEU students’ stance towards the intangible credits-soft

skills

2.1. NEU students’ perception of developing soft skills


In reality, only bachelor degrees are not enough for outstanding curriculum vitae.

To make the application desirable to the recruiters, one candidate should express well

their skills, especially soft skills, in the CV. It seems that through the media and

experienced people, NEU students pay more attention for those intangible credits. Most

students that took the survey agree that soft skills are very important, and only a few

ones consider them as normal.

Graph 2.1

Soft skills are the practical skills that you need when you are in the society. They

include some crucial skills such as the actual experience and knowledge about the

profession, the communicating skill, the presentation skill, teamwork skill, etc. To NEU

students, they rank the working skills the first (Graph 2.2).

Those skills also the first skills required when a company recruits employees.

They are listed as ones of the first skills that Vietnam students should learn, according to


Mr. Nguyen Dong Trieu, Consultant and supporting center for enterprises BR&T-the

HCM University of Technology1. If the applicant obtains an excellent degree from the

university, but cannot work in a team, or express well his ideas, then the company will

fail him. “Lacking the soft skills, even the students have the good ideas, but they do not

know how to present and express them. As a result, they will lack the self-confidence

and it leads to ineffectiveness and inefficiency,” said Mr. Nguyen Huy Hoang-Vice

deputy director Tam Viet Company (Ha Noi) 2. The communicating, net working,

persuading skills and the actual experience about the profession are also essential. They

are the second and the third in accordance with NEU students’ opinion.

Graph 2.2


2.2. NEU students’ commitment to develop soft skills

According to a recent research of Vietnam education research institution, 83% of

graduated students are lacking soft skills, and 37% of graduated students could not find

jobs mainly because of lacking soft skills. Furthermore, most graduated students need

training by the company, who recruits them, from 6 months to 1 year. It is costly for the

company. Those statistical results, of course, include NEU students.

The survey has shown that NEU students have realized the importance of

soft skills. However, perception without awareness cannot make any progress in

improve the quality of NEU students. NEU students have to put effort to improve those

intangible credits, and the question is how? NEU students should participate in many

activities that can help them enrich those skills. The survey has given the response

shown in the graph 2.3. The students learn mostly through the media, take some social

activities, go to class, and work in the university’s researches. This result indicates that

they are very active with the activities within the university. However, it also expresses

the lack of independence and individuality. They do not spend much effort for working

part-time or enrolling in some soft-skill courses. The two activities need the students’

commitment in study them and take part in.


Graph 2.3

Especially, NEU students, in general, are not good with the actual experience of

the profession. One of the reasons is that they are scared of independent. As an

evidence, 50% of graduated students would like to study further immediately because of

that reason (statistics from the education research institution). Therefore, only 36% of

students answer that they do or used to work part-time (graph 2.3). Part-time jobs are

really potential and useful if NEU students can exploit to gain the real experience, and

precious skills through that. They are effective to show your skills in your CV.

Furthermore, it is persuasive and appealing to recruiters that it does not cost money for

training you again


When still attending in the university, how is the order of NEU students’

priorities to prepare for their future career? The answer to this question partly betokens

NEU students’ awareness towards soft skill for their incoming profession. In the graph

2.4, the priorities are illustrated as the result obtained from the survey.

Graph 2.4

The result illustrated, once again, signifies the consciousness of NEU students of

soft skills’ essentiality. Their two first preferences are building up soft skills and

improve the actual knowledge and experience. NEU students really pay attention to

those skills, even it has not been enough and completed yet.


Graph 2.5: NEU students evaluate their skills themselves

In the graph 2.5, NEU students mostly evaluate themselves between the criteria

good and normal. It means that they are quite confident about their skills, especially the

soft skills.


III. Discussion and Conclusion In conclusion, compared with students in other major, students in economic

major are more proactive in acquiring knowledge and improve skills, in terms of both

perception and action. This part will summarize the findings and giving

recommendations on each finding.

As discussed in the previous part, the majority of NEU students perceive the

significance of having qualifications, both having good university graduation certificate

and other extra certificates. Levels of concern, depends on different major and number

of Intake. Among them, English certificates get most concerns whereas, the least is

computer skills certificate. According to some recruiters, Graduation Certificate is one

important criterion. This point suggests that students should not disregard it. They

should try their best to get good grades and pay attention to studying in university.

On aspect of intangibles, all the students consider knowledge and skills essential.

Levels of concern also depend on different major and number of Intake. In terms of

activities, a minority of students still does nothing or be inactive although they know the

preparations are necessary. These following suggestions are given to improve this point.

In the position of university administer, foreign language and computer skills

teaching should be more invested and improved in order that Students can use in

practice of working. University should direct students to develop the three most basic

supportive skills (languages, computing, soft skills). Besides, they should encourage and

support the outdoor activities like volunteer team, clubs, etc. This helps create

environment for students to actively explore and develop abilities.

In recruiters’ point of view, there are some suggestions to help students in future

jobs. Companies should corporate university in education by many ways. For example,

giving students chances for internship, studying the practice so that they will be familiar

with the working environment and satisfy job requirements.


In the position of Students, the findings implied that they should not spend too

much time on extra credits. Here extra credits mean the ones with little value. Instead of

taking short-time course for them, students use the time to concentrate on their major

and school works.

Above all, the final recommendation to student is that the only way for success is

being proactive to reinforce individuals’ competence.


Appendix I: QUESTIONAIRE

Preparation of students in National Economic University for future job

Our Dears,

We are a group of students from Advanced Finance Class, Intake 48. We are doing a research about the Preparation of National Economic University students for future job. Its purpose is to clarify the reality and afterwards giving recommendations for our university students to be successful in career. Your supports would contribute a lot to our study.

Would you please spend some time for answering this questionnaire!

Thank you very much.

1. What year of study you are in?

□ First year students

□ Second year students

□ Third year students

□ Final year students

2. Which faculties you are in?

□ Faculties of economics ( investment, insurance…)

□ Banking- Finance

□ Auditing- Accounting

3. Do you care about high grades, A-level graduation certificate? And do you strive for them?


□ Yes

□ No

4. Do you think Qualifications are essential?

□ Essential because Qualifications reflect knowledge, competence and bring many

opportunities. (E.g. scholarship, good job)

□ Essential although qualifications do not reflect knowledge, competence, they are

the only thing that helps students get jobs.

□ No. because qualifications are only nominal, they have meanings in papers only

and they do not guarantee a job in future

□ Other opinion: ……………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………………

5. Beside Bachelor’s Degree, Do you think other Certificates are essential?

□ Yes

□ No

6. Did/Do/Will you intend to get any certificates of the following? ( you can choose many choices)

□ Foreign Languages (TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS, Cambridge, etc)

□ Computing certificates (Office, etc)

□ Others (Accounting, Securities, etc)

7. Please put these certificates into order of essence1: Most essential 3: Least essential


□ Foreign Languages (TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS, Cambridge, etc)

□ Computing certificates (Office, etc)

□ Others (Accounting, Securities, etc)

Do you think obtaining soft skills and practical knowledge are important to economic students?

□ Yes

□ No

8. Please put these into order of importance: (From 1: Most to 3: Least)

□ Knowledge about the practice of the major/industry/field that Students are

studying

□ Communication skills, networking (present skills, persuading skills, etc.)

□ Working competence (time management, teamwork, etc)

9. What do you actually do to obtain these practical knowledge and Soft skills? ( you can tick more than one choice)

□ Take courses in soft skills

□ Do Part-time jobs

□ Take part in social activities

□ Acquire socio-economic information from Mass media (newspapers, radio, TV,

Internet)


□ Doing group works, doing academic Research

□ No. I do nothing.

□ Your personal way: ………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………….

10. Which activity do you spend the most of your Time/Effort? Put into order from 1: most to 7: least

□ Coming to class for lectures, doing exercises and academic researches

□ Acquire soft skills

□ Acquire practical knowledge

□ Learning Foreign Languages

□ Learn computing skills

□ Get other certificates

□ Entertainment


11. How do you evaluate your knowledge and skills? Tick the cells you choose.

Very good

Good Fair Bad Very bad

Academic or theoretical knowledge( from books, lectures)

Supportive knowledge( computer, foreign language)

Practical Knowledge

Communication skills, networking( persuading, presentations, etc)

Competence in Working( Time management, team works, etc)


Appendix II: Interview scripts

I. Interview with Mr Nguyen Tien Cuong- Vice president of Micro

banking for small and medium sized enterprises-MSME centre,

Techcombank

Interviewer: Thank you very much for spending time on our interview

Mr Cuong: You are welcome

Interviewer: The first question for you, Sir, what do you think about bachelor degree and

how it can reflect the students’ knowledge and ability?

Mr Cuong: Well, I highly appreciate bachelor degree. When looking at a CV of a

candidate, the first thing recruiters concern about is the grade in a bachelor degree, such as

good or fair, and then the others like experience and other certificates. Most of our

employers graduated from prestigious economics university, such as the Foreign trade

university, the National economic university or the Banking academy, so we consider

bachelor degrees from these universities as reliable.

Interviewer: How about other certificates, such as foreign languages, computing and

accounting? Are they necessary for students to get a good job?

Mr Cuong: Personally, I think that besides holding bachelor degree, if students also have

certificates in foreign languages, computing or other economics fields it would be great.

However, not all of them are strictly necessary. Among these certificates, I highly value

foreign languages certificates, especially the international ones like Toeic, Toefl or Ielts

since it can bring you considerable opportunities to get promotion, higher education.

Computing is basic knowledge and skill that students must to have but we don’t require our


employers to show their computing certificates, actually. In fact, students seem not pay

attention to this. I don’t mean in term of certificates but in term of real skills. Well, lastly,

about other certificates such as accounting or stock market, I think they are unnecessary.

They are only helpful for students whose major are not accounting or finance. In this case,

they play a role of “spare plan” if these students cannot find a job suitable to their majors.

In general, I think they are unnecessary.

Interviewer: Thank you very much.


II. Interview with Ms. Hoang Thi Tho – HRM manager of Anh Quan

Corporation, Ha Dong, Ha Noi

Interviewer: Thanks for your time. Today I want to ask you some questions about the

recruitment. Could we start?

Ms Tho: Oh, go ahead. You are welcome.

Interviewer: Firstly, what types of employees that you usually recruit? I mean do they need high

academic degrees or not?

Ms Tho: Uhm, each year we usually recruit depending on the expansion of the corporation. Our

businesses are about real estates, and services such as hotels, bars, and restaurants. Because of

the profile of the business, we need all kinds of labor, from little education to high education.

Interviewer: So what about the labor with high education? Do you recruit newly graduates? And

what profession do you require?

Ms Tho: To tell the truth, they are not that favorable to us. Usually, we accept someone with

experience. And we mostly need the economic graduated ones.

Interviewer: Only because of the experience that you don’t prefer newly graduates?

Ms Tho: It is one of many reasons. You know that we or other enterprises as well, don’t like to

take in newly graduates. They do not only lack experience about work, but also lack the socio-

knowledge and the soft skills. The soft skills are much more important, because we have to deal

with people-the customer very much. The employees need to know how to present their ideas,

then the time management, working in team, etc and especially the communication skill.

Interviewer: What do you think of the quality of the newly graduates with economic majors?

Ms Tho: There are a small number of candidates that satisfies our requirement. Mostly, they are

just excellent at the academic degree, but they don’t participate in social activities or have done

anything during their studying. Just a few of them know how to improve their strengths in those

things. In the standpoint as a recruiter, I prefer people who know how to sharpen their strengths

and have good soft skills.

Interviewer: Thanks again for your time. You’re really helpful.

Ms Tho: It’s my pleasure.



Example of a small research report - Investment of National economic university students for extra education

Documents

university students

topic students

graduated students

actions of students

students expectations

millions of students

neu students standpoints

neu students awareness