As part of the the National Innovation Centre (NIC) and Vietnam International Innovation Exhibition in Hoa Lac High-Tech Park on October 28, Google and the NIC under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) organised a conference to summarise the Vietnam Digital Talent programme in 2022 - 2023, and announce scholarships for 2024.

40,000 scholarships have already delivered to students, who are officials, lecturers, students in universities, colleges and workers, including many disadvantaged people, to strengthen their professional skills.

The programme will deploy eight courses, with five of them have already launched in 2022-2023: IT Support, Project Management, Data Analytics, UX Design, Digital Marketing and E-commerce, and three new ones of Cybersecurity, Advanced Data Analytics, and Business Intelligence. All of these are sponsored by Google.

According to an economic report from Google, 62 per cent of respondents consider analytical skills to be one of the most important skills, while 55 per cent said digital and cybersecurity skills important, too. Meanwhile, cybersecurity is facing a serious shortage, at present only 50,000 experts can handle problems, and 650,000 engineers are needed.

"Vietnam is one of the countries with the fastest growing digital economy in Southeast Asia, and we see many better development prospects in the future. To promote this opportunity, Google is committed to continuing to support digital skills improvement for Vietnamese people," Sapna Chadha, vice president of Google Asia-Pacific said.

"With the companionship of the MPI, NIC, and many other government partners, we have been working together to build a successful Vietnam Digital Talent programme. We believe that our partnership would create significant value for the Vietnamese labour market, helping students and jobseekers study and succeed in the near future.”

Tran Quoc Phuong, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment said the programme aims to strengthen digital skills and promote talents to enhance digital human resources.

"We have been narrowing the gaps of the digital divide in Vietnam, providing chances of study and development for 20,000 people. More than 5,000 students have already completed at least a course of the programme and successfully received professional certification from Google, which also demonstrates the success of the mission," Phuong said.

The scheme, which is developed on the online platform coursera.org is a non-profit project of Google in Vietnam, supported by the NIC. Besides this, it has also shaken hands with VietnamWorks and TopCV to build a network of more than 100 recruiters.

At the event on the afternoon of October 28, they organised a large-scale job fair, connecting graduates with more than 30 businesses in the recruitment network. This attracted the interest and participation of more than 1,500 students in person and online.

In the future, the initiative will continue to contribute to the sustainable development of the IT industry in the country. Awarding scholarships and providing quality courses will help promote the development and enhance the professional capacity of students for a modern and innovative Vietnam, where everyone has the opportunity to develop and contribute to the country's prosperity.