Identifying people as the decisive factor to turn the Central region into a dynamic economic region of the country, schools and businesses in the Central region increasingly focus on improving the quality of human resources, especially the ability of foreign languages.

This is reflected in the trend of applying international English assessment standards, typically TOEIC as a foreign language output standard of universities and as an input recruitment criterion as well as human resource assessment of enterprises in the Central region. The development of a workforce fluent in English according to international standards will be solid to help the Central region fully exploit strong industries such as seaports, information technology, tourism, and services.

Enterprises recruit and evaluate personnel with TOEIC test scores

The recruitment of human resources in the enterprise plays a very important and decisive role in the success or failure of each enterprise. Especially with the strong industries of the Central region as above, any enterprise with a staff that can meet the needs of the integrated economy, especially the ability to speak English, means that firmly hold the victory in hand.

In today’s recruitment market in the Central region in particular or the whole country in general, it is not difficult to come across recruitment notices requiring or prioritizing candidates with TOEIC English certificates. This is considered a “wise” step of businesses when they take advantage of the prestigious evaluation system of the American Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the process of screening applicants from the very beginning.

The application of TOEIC test results will help businesses shorten the recruitment assessment process, significantly reducing costs and resources not only for recruitment but also for training and developing employees. Moreover, studies have shown that employees with good English skills often possess quick thinking, flexibility, good logic, productive and effective working skills.

That is why the “big guys” have not hesitated to use TOEIC test scores over the past decades as criteria for recruiting personnel such as: Viettel Group requires English proficiency from TOEIC’s 550 – 900 depending on the requirements of each position; Vietnam Airlines requires TOEIC of 600 – 700 for leaders, room staff and 450 for ground staff; A series of large banks such as Agribank require a minimum of TOEIC 400, Techcombank requires TOEIC of 375 – 875 depending on each position, BIDV requires 450 or more…

Businesses and organizations in the Central region are not out of that trend. Asiatrans Vietnam company in Da Nang sets the criteria that candidates must achieve over 600 for the position of import-export document officer. The import-export specialist of Danapha Pharmaceutical Company also requires a TOEIC score above 650; Meanwhile, the quality assurance supervisor of this company needs to achieve TOEIC 500. Since 2014, FSoft Central has requested over 550 when recruiting for a number of positions. Lecturers of the Faculty of Medicine – Duy Tan University are also required to score above 600 in TOEIC. Consultants at Da Nang Family General Hospital need to achieve above 550 TOEIC according to recruitment criteria…

Not stopping at the recruitment stage, many businesses have made full use of the TOEIC assessment standard in the process of consolidating and developing their human resources system. Accordingly, TOEIC test results are also used to evaluate the progress of personnel over the years, thereby serving as a basis for decisions on promotion, transfer of personnel to key positions. Many businesses also have special treatment policies such as monthly financial support for employees with high TOEIC scores; such as Fsoft Central, Formosa Ha Tinh, Family General Hospital…

Standardize international English from within the school

With the mission to meet the human resource requirements for the Central economy, contributing to the general development of the country, the universities and colleges in the area quickly grasped the market’s demand and had the right solutions, progressive steps in the training program, assessing the quality of students. Many schools such as Danang University of Science and Technology, Central University of Civil Engineering, Da Nang University of Technical Education, etc. have included TOEIC in the curriculum and selected the TOEIC test as the English output standard for students. Graduates aim to give students a good premise of foreign language ability, from which there will be many opportunities for career development in the future.

According to Assoc.Prof.Dr. Doan Quang Vinh – Principal of Polytechnic University – University of Danang: “Today, foreign businesses as well as Vietnamese businesses have used TOEIC certificates as a condition for admission more and more, so The school has chosen TOEIC as the output standard for them. With the TOEIC certificate in hand, they can easily get a job as well as start a business later.”

Thus, it can be seen that the TOEIC has gradually appeared in a variety of business industries as well as training fields in the Central region. Access to advanced educational standards in the world will bring resilience to the quality of human resources in the Central region, contributing to the sustainable development roadmap for this region.

Truong Thinh – Dantri.com.vn