Foreign language training - a breakthrough in tourism human resource development
(Baonghean) -Currently, most of Nghe An's international travel centers always lack tour guides who are fluent in foreign languages, so many centers are forced to hire tour guides from other units to pick up and drop off guests.
Nghe An has 9 international travel centers, of which Huu Nghi Travel Center is considered the international travel agency with the most tour guides and the most foreign languages (3 Thai tour guides, 2 English tour guides and 1 Chinese tour guide), while other international travel centers only have 2-3 tour guides, mainly Thai and English. The number of tour guides who know Chinese can be counted on the fingers, while Japanese, Korean, Cambodian... are currently not available. There are many reasons for this situation, but first of all, in the past, vocational training orientation in general, and foreign language training in particular, has lacked practicality and connection with social needs.
On the other hand, the awareness of the majority, especially managers, still underestimates foreign language training. Mr. Nguyen Huu Bac - Nghe An Tourism Association said that compared to ASEAN countries such as Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, etc., the foreign language proficiency of our tourism workers is weak. In a recent conference on tourism of the three Indochinese countries, when arranging a table of 9 people for all three countries: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia (3 people from each country), while you speak Vietnamese very well, we do not know your language.
Some people say that because Nghe An's international tourist market is limited, it is difficult to train and retain good tour guides, but that is only part of the problem. According to Mr. Le Van Thanh - leader of Nghe An Tourism Association, the reason for the lack of tour guides and weak foreign language skills is also due to unhealthy competition, which is opportunistic, so it is difficult for competent units to retain qualified tour guides for a long time. Another difficulty of Nghe An is the lack of foreign language training facilities, especially regional languages such as Thai, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Cambodian, etc.
Since 2008, a foreign language training cooperation project including Thai and English at many levels from elementary to university, mainly training for the tourism industry according to international standards, located at the College of Economics and Technology No. 1, in cooperation with Udon Thani Rajabhat University (Thailand), the scale of Thai language training each year is from 300 - 500 students, English each year is from 200 - 400 students, Udon Thani University provides lecturers, training programs and training equipment, Vocational College No. 1 provides classrooms, offices, dormitories... for teachers and students. However, up to now, the foreign language center located at Nghe An Vocational College No. 1 is still very difficult to recruit students, after nearly 2 years of training cooperation, only 2 Thai language classes and 2 English classes have been opened, with a total of less than 100 students.
According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Vinh, Principal of Vocational College No. 1 (General Confederation of Labor), linking vocational training in general, foreign language training in particular with tourism enterprises in Nghe An is still very difficult because most enterprises are small in scale and do not have the ability to support their employees to improve their qualifications. Therefore, to "stimulate demand" in foreign language training for tourism, the Tourism Association needs to coordinate with relevant sectors to have a plan to support training to improve foreign language proficiency, first of all for the management staff in the tourism industry and then for those who directly serve international guests such as receptionists, tour guides, etc. With the goal of making Nghe An one of the tourist destinations in the North Central region to strongly expand to the East-West corridor in the coming time, it is thought that promoting foreign language training for the tourism industry is a breakthrough step in human resource development today.
Mai Ho Minh (Culture Magazine)
