Vocational study abroad is not all rosy
(Baonghean.vn) - In the past, after graduating from high school, many students and their parents often looked for vocational training addresses in the country if they did not want to go to university. However, currently, the trend of studying abroad is becoming a concern for many students.
Many advantages
Besides labor export programs, vocational study abroad is a path for those who want to study and work abroad. This is a study abroad program to serve the learning needs of working people, older people with not too high qualifications, lasting from 2-3 years.
Short training time, practice-oriented and with low cost, even free in some countries, makes vocational study abroad increasingly attractive to learners. The "market" chosen by Vietnamese workers in general, and Nghe An workers in particular, to study abroad is countries with developed economies such as: Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea...
One of the countries with the largest number of Nghe An people studying abroad is Germany. Mr. Nguyen Trung Hau - representative of a vocational study abroad consulting company on Ly Thuong Kiet Street (Vinh City) said: "Due to the aging population of Germany, the human resources in some specific industries such as restaurants - hotels, construction, nursing, agriculture ... are seriously lacking, the German Government opened a vocational study abroad program and called on students from other countries to study and work.
The special feature of the vocational study abroad program in Germany is not only that it is free, but students are paid during their studies and will be able to get acquainted with the job while still in school. International students will receive a monthly government subsidy of 900 - 1,200 Euros. Not only that, to attract more skilled workers to live and work in Germany, the Government of this country also creates conditions for foreigners to be able to obtain German citizenship after only 5 years, instead of 8 years as before.
In March 2023, Nguyen Gia Bao (born in 2000), residing in Hung Phuc ward, Vinh city, graduated from the restaurant and hotel industry after 3 years of vocational training in Germany. Bao said that the salary he received during his studies was enough to cover his living expenses. After graduating, Bao was hired at a restaurant with a salary of 2,800 Euro/month (nearly 73 million VND) excluding overtime.
In addition to vocational training in Germany, in recent years, many people have chosen to study vocational training in Japan and Korea, with the training form of both learning the language and learning the profession. Students can choose careers such as cooking, electronics, tourism, beauty, assembly engineering, etc.
At a vocational study abroad consulting center on Pham Dinh Toai Street (Vinh City), many students and parents come to learn about vocational study abroad programs in Japan.
After graduating from high school, I did not choose to go to university or college but studied Japanese to study Tourism in Japan, because I was trained in both theory and practice, I got to go to many places and during the internship I could earn extra income. I hope that after graduation I can find a job there.
My husband and I are both workers, our family's finances are not very good so we want our children to be independent early. Our eldest child went to Japan to study a vocational course and now has a stable job there. Our other son will graduate from high school this year, my husband and I also plan to send him to study a vocational course in Japan.
Not just bright colors
It can be seen that vocational study abroad consulting services in countries such as Germany, Australia, Korea, etc. are currently becoming a hot trend on social networking sites. Therefore, some centers target the psychology of students who want to work abroad with high income, by advertising salaries that exceed the actual level. In addition, in order to quickly complete the application for students to study abroad, the centers set a series of very high costs.
Mr. Nguyen Gia Bao said that to go to Germany to study a profession, he had to study German with a B1 certificate at a center in Hanoi with a tuition fee of more than 100 million VND.
In addition to the expensive cost of language learning, the service fee to complete the application for vocational study abroad that the centers offer can also be up to hundreds of millions of VND. According to Mr. Bao, this is not a small number and there is a big difference compared to completing the application yourself. On the other hand, there have been cases where some centers have scammed students to keep the fees they paid by collecting original documents, making copies of documents and giving fake contracts to students.
Mr. Bao added that service centers, which are driven by profit, often paint a “rosy” picture of life in Germany, but in reality it is not like that. In addition to language and cultural difficulties, during the study period, depending on the locality in Germany, the salary before graduation is almost only enough to cover living expenses, not abundant, even lacking. Therefore, many international students will have to work part-time to cover living expenses, but finding part-time work in Germany is not easy.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong (born in 1996), residing in Hung Binh ward, Vinh city, who is studying vocational training in Japan, said that the cost of studying vocational training in this country is quite high (from 900,000 - 1,300,000 Yen/year, equivalent to 150 million VND - 210 million VND/year), leading to many international students having to work part-time to make ends meet. However, according to regulations, international students are only allowed to work 4 hours/day and are not allowed to work more than 28 hours/week.
Currently, in cities with high living costs such as Tokyo, Osaka..., many Vietnamese international students, unable to find jobs and unable to cover tuition and living expenses, have had to drop out of school and work illegally... Some cases have found jobs but were denied visa extensions because they were discovered to have worked more than the prescribed number of hours.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong - Student in Japan
It can be seen that studying abroad is a promising path for a better future, but studying abroad is not all bright colors. To create the best conditions for yourself, you need to prepare yourself with a solid knowledge level, research to choose a reputable vocational study abroad consulting center that is suitable for your financial ability, at the same time, research the cultural background of the country you choose to study abroad, as well as be aware of the difficulties to always be ready to face./.
