Double salaries to attract excellent students and young scientists

In addition to salary, excellent graduates and young scientists also receive additional allowances equal to 100% of their current salary.

The Government has just issued Decree 140 on policies to attract and create sources of cadres from excellent university graduates and young scientists working in state agencies, effective from January 20, 2018. Instead of just providing incentives in recruitment as some provinces and cities are applying, this document details policies from discovery, source creation to recruitment incentives, creating conditions for improving professional skills, and attractive salary regimes.

Attractive people must study well from high school

Decree 140 sets out very high requirements for those who are attracted and create a source of cadres. If they only graduate from university with excellent grades, students are still not in this category. They must also have a good learning process in high school, achieving one of the following prizes: third prize or higher in the provincial or national excellent student competition, or Olympic competition, or national or international science and technology competition in the subjects: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, information technology, literature, history, geography, foreign languages.

People with master's, doctoral degrees, level I-II specialist doctors, resident doctors, level I-II specialist pharmacists in medicine and pharmacy must also achieve one of the above awards during high school and graduate from university with good grades or higher, with a postgraduate major in the same field of study as the university. The age limit for students and people with master's degrees is 16-30, and for those with doctoral degrees, it is under 35.

The Government has assigned higher education institutions to discover and compile a list of excellent graduates and young scientists to send to the Ministry of Education and Training. The two ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs (for students and young scientists studying abroad) must compile the list and send it to the Ministry of Home Affairs for consideration. In addition, the Ministry of Home Affairs must build a database of excellent graduates and young scientists and introduce them to state agencies for recruitment.

Hanoi has a policy to attract valedictorians to state agencies.

Only consider, double salary

According to Decree 104, excellent graduates and young scientists do not have to take entrance exams but only have to be selected. The selection content includes academic and research results (if any); interviews on professional qualifications and skills.

After being recruited, civil servants and public employees must undergo a probationary period of at least 3 months and no more than 12 months. During this period, they receive 100% of their salary and allowances. During their work, they are given priority in basic training in political theory, state management and specialized fields; and are assigned scientific and technological research tasks, projects and proposals from the district level and above.

In order to retain talented people, the Government stipulates that civil servants and public employees who are recruited are specially selected to attend the exam to be promoted to the rank of senior specialist or to be promoted to a professional title if they are classified as having completed their tasks well or excellently for 3 consecutive years from the date of recruitment; or have at least one scientific topic published in prestigious domestic, regional or international specialized scientific journals.

In addition to the salary as a normal civil servant or public employee, the recruited person will receive an additional allowance equal to 100% of the current salary coefficient, i.e. double the salary. This allowance is not used to calculate social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance. The period of receiving the additional allowance shall not exceed 5 years from the date of the recruitment decision.

In addition to the additional allowance, they also enjoy salary allowances for specific regions, industries and fields.

The Decree also clearly states that within three years from the date of recruitment, if a person who is recruited completes his/her duties for two consecutive years but has limited capacity, or fails to complete his/her duties for one year, he/she will be assigned to another job and will no longer receive the increased allowance. If he/she fails to complete his/her duties for two consecutive years, he/she will be fired or have his/her employment contract terminated.

Decree 140 is the first document of the Government that fully summarizes policies to attract highly qualified human resources, aged 16-35. Previously, the Government had Decree 40 issued in 2014, but only promoted individuals in technology activities. Some provinces and cities such as Hanoi, Da Nang, Nghe An... have preferential policies for recruiting valedictorians, excellent and excellent students at universities.

However, according to Ms. Tran Thi Thu, Deputy Secretary of the Quang Tri Provincial Youth Union, both the national and provincial levels have policies to promote talents, but they mainly stop at the level of direct recruitment into the payroll, financial support, and housing. Once in the payroll, all policies for direct recruits also follow the general policy for civil servants.

According to VNE