One of challenges of Vietnamese enterprises in the context of the national development and global integration is management skills of Chief Executive Offices (CEO) – who take important tasks in a company from organization, operation, personnel management, administration, accountancy, public relations, and trademark building to company culture building. CEO is not only a title but a career which requires high professionalism and ability to deal with possible challenges and pressures…
Few talents for enterprisesBeside inborn abilities, CEOs need professional training. Clearly, training professional CEOs is one of priorities of enterprises.
In HCM City, since 1998, to better prepare for accession of ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), the city has paid much attention to the issue. The city has launched a programme to train 1,000 directors with the aim to equip them with necessary knowledge to work as professional directors. After seven years, the programme has welcomed 1,500 learners. HCM City alone welcomed 1,100 trainees. The HCM City People’s Committee has agreed to continue the programme in the upcoming time. Teaching curricula will be added with the motto “satisfying market demand is the top priority”. The programme will receive training orders from enterprises.
The Institute Of Development Economics Research under the HCM City Economics University is the first unit of university in Vietnam to launch a CEO training programmes for enterprises. Series of IDR programmes to train CEO, CFO, BM, and ASM... have been launched and drawn much participation of enterprises, managers, and young intellects. In September, 2008, IDR also launched another CEO training course. In addition, IDR has also cooperated with VCCI Can Tho to open a CEO training course to improve skills of directors in the Mekong Delta. This has been the fifth course. The fourth course welcomed 49 trainees.
Currently, there are many private CEO training centres. Many localities have joined hands with foreign schools to offer CEO training courses. CEO training methods are designed to be very practical, useful and professional to help learners get access to real situations and practices. Learners have to make use of their knowledge and use it in each practical session. Lecturers at the centres are from universities or successful businesses, experienced managers, and senior experts in the field.
One of famous CEO training schools in HCM City is "PACE Institute of Directors”. After four years of operation, the institute has welcomed tens of thousands of domestic and foreign businesses who wanted to update and improve their skills on business administration. The first major of Pro CEO programme lasts 6 months. According to PACE, to become a professional CEO is difficult but a CEO on paper is easy. A professional CEO must hold inborn virtues of a CEO as administration is an art. Also, a CEO must equip himself/herself with necessary administration knowledge, as administration is a science. In addition, a CEO must be an experienced person. By importing famous training curricula from countries worldwide, and then Vietnamising them, PACE has made great contributions to internationalisation of human resources training for local enterprises. At present, PACE has built many international-standard training programmes to meet demand of the business community (PACE has launched more than 75 training programmes for businesses and directors). PACE has also cooperated with leading education groups worldwide to import their training curricula. Partners of PACE include ILM, World Marketing Association (WMA), American Academy of Financial Management, and UK Association of Chartered Certified Accountants... The important thing is how to bring world famous training programmes to Vietnam. To make foreign training curricula suitable for Vietnam, there are three things needed to be done: firstly, Vietnamising them. PACE has a group specialising in Vietnamising foreign curricula. Secondly, training time must be shortened. In the UK or the US, such curricula can last from three to four years. However, when being taught in Vietnam, they must be shortened to six months. The difficulty is how to shorten them but ensure their training quality. Thirdly, training cost is much lower than in foreign countries from hundreds of millions of VND to tens of millions of VND. However, it is very important that training method, and process of foreign-imported curricula must keep intact.
Future forecast
It is forecast that Vietnam will be home to 500,000 enterprises by 2010. This means that demand for directors and CEOs will increase. Therefore, training directors and CEOs is an urgent task. Many CEO training programmes have been launched to meet increasing demand. However, quality of such programmes is a matter of special concern. It is very important to take part in prestigious and suitable training programmes so that directors and CEOs can make use of knowledge they have studied in their work and make contribution to success of enterprises in domestic and foreign markets.
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