Core Values in Educating Human Resources for Socio-economic Transformations in Viet Nam

Human resource development is one of the key factors for socio-economic transformations in Viet Nam in the process of industrialization and modernization. A challenge facing the national educational policy-makers and practitioners in training human resources at all levels is the balance between traditional and transformational values embedded in educational objectives, content, and activities. Which core values are appropriate, why, and how to integrate them in educating human resources in Viet Nam in the new globalized context are the issues to be explored and discussed in the chapter. On the basis of multidisciplinary framework, especially of educational management and socio-cultural theoretical background, this study has found out that the core values for human resource development in Viet Nam today involve collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity, and continuous improvement. The research methods are mainly documentary analysis and a partial use of quantitative data from the case study of a higher education institution in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. The findings for implications include the balanced combination of the Vietnamese traditional values, namely collectivism, femininity, harmony, holistic view, and flexibility, and the humankind’s advanced values such as responsibility/commitment, collaboration, resilience, integrity, self-reliance, self-discipline, critical thinking, and creativity for the sake of sustainable development and international integration. This is deemed to meet the demand of the autonomous and market-oriented mechanism in Viet Nam. Another implication is the systematic approach in integrating these core values in the educational management, environment, and learning outcomes at all levels with the follow-up activities and capacity building training workshops, monitoring schemes, and assessment to enable transformations.